More than 6,000 trainers in certification will help farmers on the continent in the next five years, with ICO assistance, Roberio Silva, executive director of the London-based ICO, said yesterday at a conference in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. Certified beans may account for 18 percent of the coffee market by 2015 from 1 percent in 2000, Silva said.
“Compliance with the standards required for certification should still lead to improvements in quality, which are of great importance for long-term sustainability,” he said.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe would benefit from training managed by the regional African Fine Coffees Association, he said.
Sub-Saharan Africa will produce 16.7 million bags of coffee in 2013-14, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Global output will be 150.5 million against consumption of 144.4 million bags, it said.
Source: businessweek.com/news/2014-02-14/african-coffee-growers-seen-needing-to-adopt-bean-certification
