Coffee roasters plead for a solution to the scarcity of "reject" coffee on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange trading floors (ECX). Legislation makes the ECX the only place where roasters can source coffee deemed unsuitable for the international market.

Roasters are complaining that the unavailability of "rejected" coffee, low quality and high prices at the Exchange have affected their business, pushing up prices of coffee on the domestic market. Packaged roasted and ground coffee retail for 400 and 960 Br a kilogramme depending on quality and brand. The prices doubled in the last four months. Prices for a cup of coffee at cafes and eateries have also been on the rise. Recently, well-known coffee joints have increased prices by as much as 35pc.

Coffee beans labelled rejects are classified into more than half a dozen grades.

Tomoca, the country's oldest coffee chain, has a kilogramme of its ground-coffee on sale for 960 Br, from 720 Br a few months ago. A cup of coffee at one of its branches goes for 37 Br, a 10 Br increase.

Smaller coffee shops have also seen prices jacked up by around 50pc to 15 Br for a cup.

The Ethiopian Coffee Roasters Association members say they are witnessing a severe scarcity in reject coffee on the ECX floor.

On rare occasions they find the beans, the coffees are the lowest of the eight quality grades, according to Menelik Habtu, president of the Association.

Most recent prices for low-quality, washed coffee hover around 230 Br a kilo, while high-quality beans for the export market are on sale for slightly less than the rejected coffee.

Last week, roasters met with ECX officials. Wondimagegnehu Negera, chief executive officer (CEO), blamed a shortage in the supply of "reject" coffee on the trading floor. ECX officials claimed supply has been growing over the past few days, though they conceded it is insufficient to meet the demand. They also say they are working to address quality issues brought up by roasters.

Not enough is coming to the ECX to trade for local consumption, reads the Exchange's statement.

The volume of "reject" coffee that makes it to the trading floor is around a third of the exported volume. Over the past eight months, 180,000tn of coffee was shipped abroad; around 60,000tn of "reject" coffee should have been traded at the Exchange. Though figures are hard to come by, roasters say this figure is nowhere close to what was sold for them. Last year, close to 100,000tn of coffee was traded through the ECX for domestic consumption.

“Most roasters work at less than half their previous performances,” said Menelik, who represents 90 of the 200 roasters in business.

Menelik runs his own coffee roasting company, Typica Coffee, where he serves as general manager overseeing 20 staff. Last year, his company processed nine tonnes of "reject" coffee for the local market. Though he is uncertain what the remaining months of the financial year will bring, he is confident the volume is bound to reduce sharply in the next few months.

Shafi Omer, deputy director of the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority, contends the shortages result from the record-high export volumes the industry has been enjoying since last year. Ethiopia shipped 248,000tn of coffee, generating 854 million dollars, a 17.4pc increase from the preceding year. Over the first eight months of this financial year, coffee exports brought in nearly 750 million dollars.

The Authority targets a little over one billion dollars in export revenues. The growth shows that all types and quality levels of coffee are exported, according to Shafi.

"The most important thing here is the opportunity for forex income,” Shafi said. “We'd even like to double the exports to better the country’s economy.”