By George Mwangi

Special to Dow Jones Newswires


Ethiopia's coffee production forecast has been revised down by 12% in the marketing year ended September as dry conditions lowered yields, the U.S. Agriculture Department said late Wednesday.

Production is expected at 7.3 million 60-kilogram bags, down from an earlier forecast of 8.3 million bags, the USDA said in its Coffee: World Markets and Trade report.

Exports forecast has also been lowered by 19% to 3.9 million bags due to reduced output, it said.

Ethiopia, Africa's largest coffee producer and the world's fifth-largest arabica-coffee exporter, consumes almost half of its output, which is high for a major producing country, the USDA said in its recent annual Ethiopia coffee report.

The Ethiopia Coffee Exchange has streamlined the coffee value chain so that coffee farmers with a minimum of two hectares, coffee unions, commercial farmers and coffee processors could export coffee directly to the international market without using intermediaries, the USDA said in the annual report.


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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-21-23 0411ET