Germany’s Fund to Help Innovators Boost Ethiopian Coffee Sector
ADDIS ABEBA – The German development agency has availed a new fund for innovative ideas which could increase profitability of smallholder coffee farmers.
Economic Cooperation and Development, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) names the initiative ‘Coffee Innovation Fund’, which it avails since Monday.
It will award innovative ideas up to 50 million euros and help improve the incomes of smallholder coffee farmers in Ethiopia, says the agency.
Large capital is fueling innovation and development in the coffee sector, but capital and growth have been unequally distributed. The current value for the coffee industry globally is $200 billion a year.
Coffee growers and local economies have been largely excluded from investments in innovation and development.
Rolled out in four countries: Ethiopia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, the coffee innovation fund aims to encourage innovative ideas that will increase profitability of smallholder coffee farmers and foster fairer value distribution in the supply chain, GIZ says in a statement.
This can be achieved through, innovative production, processing and marketing coffee at origin.
The fund will contribute up to 50,000 euros worth of investments and requires matching contributions from the winners which can be made in monetary or in-kind terms, according to GIZ statment.
The fund is applicable to producer organizations, processors, exporters, traders and other private companies that are keen to innovate farming systems by promoting the design of new and experimental practices to increase coffee quality and environmental sustainability of farms
Or they can also compete for developing new market access by building transparent and mutually beneficial business models for actors in the chain and create an inclusive business model.
Proposals must be submitted to coffeeinnovation@giz.de by 30th August 2019.
