Ethiopia: Building Alliances for Action in Coffee from seed to cup (NTF V)

ITC partners with the Netherlands to support African business

ITC’s NTF V programme is designed to contribute to decent jobs and improved livelihoods in the agribusiness, agritech and digital technology sectors. To that end, we aim to:

• Increase the competitiveness of thousands of MSMEs
• Increase sales of supported companies to hit $90 million 
• Support thousands of jobs and positively impact more than 200,000 people as a result 
• Bring in-kind contributions to create an additional 50% of project value 

Our programme includes both sectors in Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, and the digital technologies sector in a multi-country project in Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and Uganda. In Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal, ITC is working with smallholder agribusiness farmers focused on cocoa and coffee, associated crops, and horticulture.

See below for more project details.

ITC partners with the Netherlands to support African agribusiness 

Ethiopia is the fifth-largest coffee-producing country in the world and considered to be the birthplace of coffee. Ethiopians are big coffee drinkers, consuming approximately half of what they produce. Coffee is part and parcel of their culture and the centrepiece of community and social gatherings. 

It is also the country’s main export crop, contributing to the livelihoods of more than five million smallholder farmers. Smallholders are the backbone of the coffee supply, with approximately 5.3 million small-scale farmers and cooperatives producing 90% of the national output. Coffee is mainly produced in the Oromia and Southern Nation, Nationalities and People’s Region, with minor production in the Amhara and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.  

While Ethiopia is a well-established coffee producer and exporter, its farmers still often struggle to make a decent living and bottlenecks persist in the sector. The project’s overall objective is to contribute to decent jobs and improved livelihoods in Ethiopia’s coffee sector. The expected outcome is the facilitation of value chain alliances that are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive and generate additional trade and investment for farmers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). 

The NTF V Agribusiness project has been designed and will be implemented through the Alliances for Action (A4A) methodology. A4A is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together private and public actors to promote competitiveness and income-risk diversification for smallholder farmers and MSMEs. Above all, A4A improves commercial linkages and participation in trade by targeting value chain operators and focusing on several product-market combinations.  

Objectives 

• Identify market opportunities and new buyers in the domestic, regional and international market for the coffee sector and associated crops. 
• Strengthen public-private alliances to support the development of more solid ecosystems, including through digital applications.  
• Build capacities of support institutions and stakeholders along the coffee value chain. That includes producers, MSMEs, and social enterprises. We work for more competitive and resilient commercialization and production, with a focus on digital and other support services. We work on market access and market intelligence tools, product development/innovation, compliance with quality standards, certification, sustainability principles, access to finance. 
• Facilitate linkages for SMEs, social enterprises and producer associations with international, regional and domestic partners, business and investment opportunities.