“The country is now producing more and exporting more,” Anteneh said, speaking from his office overlooking the streets of Addis Ababa, where cafes are crammed with avid coffee drinkers at any given hour of the day.
While not all coffee, beans and sesame produced are traded on the ECX – they are also sold through farming cooperatives or at auction houses – about 90 percent of these three items move through the commodities exchange.
“The livelihoods of the farmers and the producers have changed for the better,” Anteneh said, before ringing the ECX bell to open trading for the day, adding that farmers were encouraged by greater profits to both produce more and raise the quality of production.
Previously, around a third of the price of goods sold went to the farmer, but those who sell through ECX take as much of 80 percent of the sale price home.
The impact extends to the buyers as well.
Like the producers, they are better informed about activity on world markets through the ECX, and since the exchange has introduced rigid quality controls, it is working to ensure the product can be trusted.
