JEDDAH — Ethiopia’s coffee export drive will be boosted by higher output as Horizon Plantations and Ethio Agri-CEFT plan to more than double coffee production and expand tea output.



Horizon Plantations is part of the MIDROC umbrella group of companies, majority owned by Saudi Arabian investor Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $10.8 billion.



“In the coming five years, we have a plan to raise our coffee produce to 25,000 tons,” Jemal Ahmed, managing director of the firms, said in an interview published in Arabian Business.



“One hundred percent of our coffee could be exported once we attained the quality we need,” he said, adding the group planned to set up an instant coffee processing plant soon.



The firm, which trades its premium coffee through the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and counts Starbucks, Munich-based Dallmayr, Germany’s second largest roaster Tchibo, and Seattle-based Caffe Vita among its buyers.



It produces more than 10,000 tons of coffee from its 25,000 hectare plantations in southern Ethiopia’s, of which 70 percent is exported.



Ethiopia, Africa’s biggest producer of the bean - anticipates record-high exports by the end of the fiscal year ending July. Drought and disease has hit rival crops in Latin America.



Total coffee production in Ethiopia amounted to 450,000 tons over the 2013/14 period, according to official figures. Officials expect a similar amount this season.



It exported around 190,000 tons in 2013/14, earning $841 million, down from the record high of 193,000 tons the year before.



He plans to invest $5 billion more in Ethiopia’s agriculture and agro-processing over the 2016-2021 period, said Jemal, who is also managing director of Saudi Star - another subsidiary which grows food crops in 15,000 hectares in Ethiopia’s Gambela region.



Among the sectors that will see an expansion include tea production. MIDROC’s Ethio Agric-CEFT produces a total of 5,700 tons of tea leaves annually from the 1,249-hectare Wush Wush plantation and the 860-hectare Gumaro, and expects production to rise to 7,000 tons in the next few years.



The firm is set to export 1,300 tons by the end of the 2014-2015. Its buyers include Unilever’s Lipton.



“Ethiopia is one of the very few countries which has opportunities to invest in virgin land. For us, (tea) was just a startup but the next step will be big,” Jemal said. 



A recent study about tea consumption around the world revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranks second in the Arab world, behind Egypt, in terms of tea consumption, with over 19 million cups consumed daily. The study has also shown that over 24.5 billion cups of tea are consumed weekly around the world. The tea trade in KSA is valued at over SR638 million, while spending per capita on tea products is estimated to be SR22-24 per year.



This is due to the fact that tea drinking is essential in social meetings in Saudi. It is also considered as a daily habit in the community which regards tea as a healthy drink, making it the second largest liquid consumed in the Kingdom, after water.



“We strongly believe that it is our responsibility to educate the end consumer about the environmental and health benefits of the different types of tea,” said Toufic Elakhrass, Marketing Director of Food and Beverages in Unilever KSA, “The world is witnessing a remarkable development in research on the advantages of tea, and there have been several studies about this industry, which serve both the growers and tea lovers around the world.”



Unilever, the world’s leading Fast Moving Goods Companies (FMCG) and the manufacturer of Lipton tea, holds the largest market share in the tea industry. — SG/Agencies