February 18, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 29, 1428

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 17: Producers of African specialty coffee said on Saturday they expect coffee output by countries in the east and south of the continent to jump by at least 30 to 40 percent in the next five years.

After declining due to weak prices and civil strife, coffee production is rising in Africa on higher prices and growing political stability in the region, officials said.

Production has been going up. Rwanda's production has almost doubled, Malawi production is going up, in Zambia they are promoting small-holder farming, Robert Nsibirwa, outgoing head of the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA), told Reuters.

We think this momentum is now building. We think in the next two to five years we should see our production going up by at least 30 to 40 percent. He did not give a figure for current production.

EAFCA's members include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

Although prices have risen, farmers remain trapped in poverty because the increase is not sufficient to help them buy food, pay for schooling and healthcare and purchase farm inputs to boost crop husbandry, analysts say.

“The coffee crisis continues,” Seth Petchers, the coffee programme manager at Oxfam America told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where players in the specialty coffee market have been discussing ways of promoting the industry.

All you have to do is go out and visit the farmer and you can see the conditions that they live in and then come to the United States or go to Europe and see how much some of their best coffees are selling for in the retail market. The debate over differences in coffee prices at the producer—Reuters