Quality, traceability and sustainability — since 1969.
The Ethiopian Coffee Association was founded in 1969 by Ethiopia’s major coffee exporters, as a non-profit promoter of Ethiopian coffee in the international market. We represent the whole chain, from smallholder farmers to exporters.
Who we represent
Our members account for more than 85% of Ethiopia’s coffee export value and more than 90% of its volume — smallholder and commercial farmers, processors, roasters and exporters.
We are not a broker and we do not trade. We hold the record, set the standards our members work to, and represent them where decisions about Ethiopian coffee get made.
Support, inform and engage our members’ capacity to augment their coffee export, production and marketing — through maintaining coffee quality, traceability and sustainability.
That Ethiopian coffee is one of the most preferred coffees in the world.
Six things the association has always done for its members.
We connect our members to buyers
We create coffee trade linkage and networking, so a member reaches international buyers through the association rather than alone.
We tell you what is changing
We inform members of international coffee price movement and coffee policy change, consistently and before it costs them.
We put a score on the cup
Cupping services, so quality is established by protocol rather than by argument.
We stand between you and the authorities
A conciliating role where our members’ interests and the governing body’s come into conflict.
We build the skill in-country
Coffee quality training, marketing and warehouse training, and consultancy for members who need it.
We publish what the season did
An annual coffee trading report and consumer market outlooks, written for people who trade.
Who we stand with
We are affiliated to the Specialty Coffee Association, the African Fine Coffees Association, the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan, the International Coffee Organization and the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority.
Those affiliations are how an Ethiopian member’s certificate, grade and complaint carry weight outside Ethiopia.
What we set ourselves, and where it stands.
Every member on record
Moving the membership from paper and memory into a record a buyer, a regulator or a bank can rely on.
Plot to port
Recording where coffee comes from at plot level, so provenance is a document rather than a promise.
Ready before it is asked
Building the due-diligence chain Europe now requires, centrally, before it is demanded of members one by one.
Grading that travels
Making the grade recorded at intake follow the lot all the way to the buyer.
Matched, not brokered
Matching verified supply to real demand directly, so the premium stays closer to origin.
One association, one voice
Rebuilding how ECA presents itself, so it reads as the institution it has been since 1969.
A verified membership
Six ways to belong, each with published requirements and a route that does not depend on who you know.
A classification of Ethiopian coffee
Every growing area, variety, process and flavour, mapped and maintained — the reference the trade lacked.
A compliance record
Held once, centrally, so a member proves it once rather than to every buyer separately.
An association you can team up with.
Full access to international networking, market research, sustainability guidance, cupping protocols and standardisation — whichever part of the chain you work in.