Brewing Ethiopian Specialty Coffee

I am a coffee buyer at a small company and can add you the previous comment. For buyers of specialty grade coffees, the problem is that the ECX did not accommodate our needs. Specialty coffee is NOT a commodity like bulk commercial coffee. The aroma and flavor qualities of the coffees we buy are as individual as the people and companies that purchase them. In that sense, one lot of coffee from Ethiopia is not exchangeable with another, as it would need to be in a trading system where lots are classified and purchased without reference to exactly who grew the coffee, and the precise organoleptic characteristics of the coffee lot. If, as the previous commenter suggested, the ECX had provided a bypass for Specialty grades of coffee, ones that do not belong with the bulk container-load lots of commodity coffee. One reason they neglected this is the very bizarre notion they have that Specialty represents less than 5% of their coffee exports, whereas most in the coffee trade put it much, much higher … for example 20-25%. Let’s face it, the ECX means income for the government. And there is also the odd fact that the government owns huge farms in the west that produce a lot of lower grade coffees. The ECX board has little representation from farmers … as far as I know one of the 2 farmers on the board is also the largest exporter! Nobody claims that the old auction system was perfect, but it functioned, or rather it had been made to function. The ECX breaks all relationships between the buyer, and the farmer, using their system of making all lots anonymous. While it is a charming and efficient trading platform, how could they understand so little about Specialty coffee, and the buyers? It boggles the mind, and it is the farmers, the rural people who rely on coffee production, who suffer. I was in Ethiopia One tiime and people are afraid to even speak their mind for fear of having their trading license pulled. I can’t even get honest responses by email, because people feel their messages might be intercepted. (Note that while Ethiopia is a wonderful place, and quite democratic, there are some very odd sectors such as cell and internet. There is one internet provider, Ethionet, governement-run, and acknowledged as in the top 5 in censorship behind N Korea and China!) Ethiopia is our #1 buying origin at Sweet Maria’s, and this year we are in crisis mode to find quality lots. We had a special project in East Harar where we provided materials for better processing, and a promise to buy the coffee at a better price, and we can’t even follow through on this promise because the coffee must be delivered to a Govt warehouse and made anonymous by the ECX process. This and other relationships we have are now severed! What are we to do?