F.a: Towards sustainable supply chain of Ethiopian coffee The project aims to improve Ethiopian coffee supply chain by enhancing farmers’ agricultural productivity and strengthening their organisational capacity with particular focus on human resource managerial skills. The project is a follow-up project of the
 pilot project financed by Finnpartnership and Gustav Paulig ltd. This project is also implemented in close cooperation with Paulig. The project focuses on coffee growing cooperatives located in southern Ethiopia.Coffee is vital to the cultural and socio-e
conomic life of Ethiopia and provides important income from casual labour for millions of poor rural people. Ethiopia has more than 1.2 million coffee growers, 95% of which are smallholders, and nearly a fifth of the population depend on coffee for their l
ivelihood. Coffee contributes almost a third of the country's foreign exchange earnings, while 50 % of the production is consumed locally. Ethiopian coffee farmers are very vulnerable and often live in extreme poverty. They face challenges like low product
ivity, quality inconsistency, lack of direct sales contacts and marketing skills. As temperatures rise and rains become more erratic, Ethiopian coffee farmers have seen decreasing yields. In rural areas, manual agricultural wage workers are in the very wea
kest position. Small producer organisations consist of coffee producers and usually don’t have capacity dealing with seasonal hired labour. With huge youth unemployment in Ethiopia, youth are especially vulnerable.The overall objective of the project is 
to contribute to realization of the right to sustainable livelihood of producer and worker households in the Sidama, Yirgacheffe and Bench Maji regions. The purpose of the project is to make coffee production more economically, environmentally and socially
 sustainable. The project supports coffee farmers to increase their productivity, as well as quality and market access, improves the cooperatives’ administrative and managerial capacities, enhances the cooperatives inclusiveness, and supports their clima
te resilience. The final beneficiaries will be 40,407 farmers in 28 cooperative unions. The project focuses especially on youth, people with disabilities, women and poorest farmers and workers. The project is implemented by Fairtrade Africa in collaboratio
n with Gustav Paulig ltd, Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Marketing and Development Authority, local research and educational institutions, and local NGOs and DPOs. http://www.fairtradeafrica.net/