We are coffee farmer (from Ethiopia with love)

Visual Documentary: “We are coffee farmer!” (from Jimma, Ethiopia)
more info: alexanderklebe.com/coffee-farmer

More than 50% of the world´s coffee production is done by more than 25 Million smallholder farmers, who can improve their business by forming cooperatives and the support of funded consultancy, who help them to improve business knowledge, their production quality and thus their long term income.

The devel­op­ment of Ethiopia could be described as in tran­si­tion between tra­di­tion and indus­tri­al­iza­tion. Between wooden ploughs with oxen and high tech Learjet’s. Most of the 82 mil­lion inhab­i­tants are farm­ers (approx. 85%) in a coun­try full of oppor­tu­ni­ties and rich in resources. As most of the devel­op­ing coun­tries the exports rely mostly on pri­mary goods, such as cof­fee, live­stock and khat. Ethiopia is a the most impor­tant cof­fee exporter in Africa, and earned 840 Mln. US-Dollars with their Ara­bica and Spe­cialty cof­fees. Cof­fee exports account for around 60% of Ethiopian total exports.

Cof­fee is, after oil, the sec­ond most traded com­mod­ity in the world. One might sug­gest that the wealth of the cof­fee export­ing coun­tries might be as shim­mer­ing as in the oil-based economies. But its not even likely.

East-Africa is suf­fer­ing from star­va­tion. Infra­struc­ture is a major prob­lem. For­eign Trade in some ways as well. At the same time when the corn car­ry­ing cargo ships of the World Food Pro­gram arrive in Dji­bouti (which is the clos­est port for sea-trade), oth­ers full of rice and other agri­cul­tural goods are leav­ing for Saudi-Arabia and Asian countries.

There is a say­ing: “The Ethiopian hopes for a lot of rain in Canada.”

Eco­nom­i­cally seen the ques­tion is, how can the poten­tial in the rural and remote areas be strength­ened? How can the Farm­ers them­selves eman­ci­pate from eco­nomic dependencies?

One key is edu­ca­tion. Edu­ca­tion that is given locally to those who actu­ally are in demand. Bring­ing solu­tions and knowl­edge in order to improve the lives of the peo­ple, by improv­ing the qual­ity of their prod­ucts and diver­si­fy­ing their port­fo­lio. For exam­ple to pro­duce a spe­cialty cof­fee than only the poorly processed and thus poorly paid stan­dard qual­ity coffee.

If the farm­ers can­not make a decent liv­ing by what they do, they will migrate and leave their habi­tats. Caus­ing the rapid growth of mega cities and shelters.

Trade than Aid.

For a fair trade, not only as a label, the African economies need to be taken seri­ously and they need to take their eco­nomic edu­ca­tion and empow­er­ment as much as serious.

With this project I want to set a pos­i­tive exam­ple of what devel­op­ment work can do for the peo­ple, and what peo­ple can actu­ally do for them­selves, if organ­ised and with a com­mon vision.