Ethiopia’s coffee industry has passed a historic threshold, generating more than $3 billion in export revenue for the 2025/26 fiscal year, even as global coffee prices fell sharply, officials announced in Addis Ababa on 3 July 2026.
Minister of Agriculture Addisu Arega confirmed the figure at a media briefing, celebrating that coffee now provides more than 30% of Ethiopia’s total export earnings, according to reports from Bantu Gazette and allAfrica. In a social media message quoted by allAfrica, Addisu wrote, “It is accomplished! Ethiopia has successfully achieved its target of generating three billion USD from coffee exports this budget year.”
Director General of the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) Adugna Debela told reporters that during the year, one tonne of Ethiopian coffee sold for $7,500 on the global market, up from $6,000 a year earlier, while “other coffee exporting countries received a 40 percent lower price compared to last year,” according to coverage by The Star (Xinhua) and Bastille Post. Over the same period, the average global coffee price per kilogram declined from $4 to $2.4, those outlets reported.
The record revenue caps a rapid climb in Ethiopia’s coffee earnings. Bantu Gazette and allAfrica report that export income rose from $1.4 billion in 2023 to $1.43 billion in 2024, then $2.65 billion in 2025 before surpassing $3 billion in 2025/26. Ethiopia is described by Bantu Gazette and Further Africa as Africa’s largest producer of Arabica coffee and its principal source of foreign exchange, with the sector supporting about 6 million smallholder farmers and around 15 million people overall.
Behind the revenue surge lies a steep increase in production. The Star and Bantu Gazette report that Ethiopia’s annual coffee output has expanded from 500,000 tonnes five years ago to 1.5 million tonnes this year, while average coffee-producing capacity has risen from 600 kilograms to 1,000 kilograms per hectare over the same period, according to The Star. Medafrica Times and Bantu Gazette note that coffee exports accounted for more than 30% of national export revenue in 2025/26.
Official and international figures sometimes differ on recent performance, but both show strong growth. Medafrica Times cites an official Ethiopian figure of about 470,000 tonnes exported in 2024/25, worth $2.65 billion. In contrast, a June 2026 report from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS), summarized by Daily Coffee News, estimated 2024/25 exports at 7.43 million 60-kilogram bags valued at $2.89 billion.
Demand patterns are also shifting. The Star and Bastille Post list Saudi Arabia, Germany and China as the top three destinations for Ethiopian coffee in 2025/26. Daily Coffee News, citing the USDA FAS report, notes that exports to China rose 264.1% to 670,000 bags in 2024/25; a decade ago China ranked 17th among Ethiopia’s coffee destinations.
ECTA and government agencies have moved to expand the sector’s capacity and channels. Daily Coffee News, drawing on a USDA FAS report, states that the government has allocated 100,000 hectares for private-sector modern coffee development, the first time such large tracts have been reserved exclusively for commercial coffee, expanding the commercial farm base by around 70%. The Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported in January 2026 that a new guideline for exports of value-added roasted and ground coffee has been implemented, with companies already selling roasted Ethiopian coffee in foreign currency via Ethiopian Airlines, hotels and tourist destinations.
At the same time, there are signs of pressure beneath the headline numbers. Daily Coffee News reports that record-high local cherry prices, declining global market baselines and rising operating costs have reduced direct export incentives for some farmers and exporters, leading some to hold back stocks in anticipation of better pricing. In March 2026, ENA reported that Adugna urged producers and suppliers to “promptly market their products,” emphasizing that international coffee prices may decline in the foreseeable future.
Despite logistics disruptions linked to conflict in the Middle East, which The Star and Bastille Post say affected shipments to the region and the Far East, Adugna described the $3 billion outcome as “a pride for us to register such a remarkable result amid the conflict in the Middle East.”
Looking ahead, the Ministry of Agriculture and ECTA have set an annual coffee export revenue target of $6 billion within five years and aim to raise average yields from about 900 kilograms per hectare to roughly 2,100 kilograms per hectare by 2031, according to Bantu Gazette, Medafrica Times and Further Africa.
