Home

About RATES

Partners Fund

Newsletters

Photo Galleries

Useful Links

Coffee Program > Highlights

EAFCA Holds Record Breaking Annual Conference

Coffee buyers from around the world recently took full advantage of the Fourth Annual Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition to travel to Addis Ababa Ethiopia to meet and network with hundreds of coffee producers, traders and processors from all over Eastern and Southern Africa. The conference, held from February 17-19th, 2007, was organized by the East African Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA) and attracted over 200 international buyers and roasters as well as over 400 regional coffee industry players. The conference/exhibition was heralded as the largest coffee promotional event ever held in Africa .

Highlights of this year’s conference included a number of superb educational and social events including a pre-conference scientific meeting sponsored by CFC and CABI International, excellent conference presentations by notable coffee luminaries, cupping, roasting and barista trainings, and an outcry coffee auction. During the keynote speech, Starbucks Coffee Company pledged to double their African coffee purchases over the next two years. Many other roasters and buyers also made significant commitments to increasing their purchases of African fine coffees and encouraged EAFCA members to continue improving on the quality of their coffees.

EAFCA worked closely with the Ethiopian local coffee industry and USAID Ethiopia and provided strong support to the conference by sponsoring a number of the conference events including holding a national barista competition and co-sponsoring the first ever outcry auction that showcased some of Ethiopia’s finest coffees. RATES worked closely with USAID Ethiopia’s trade expansion activity to organize the pre-selection of the coffees and develop the rules for the auction. Through RATES and USAID Ethiopia support, Coffee Quality Institute’s (CQI) Coffee Corps provided six coffee industry volunteers who served as cupping and barista judges and instructors for the various training activities. For his untiring support of EAFCA, CQI Executive director, (and former SCAA Executive director), Ted Lingle was honored this year by receiving the first Bwana Kahawa Coffee Achievement award presented at the conference.