ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian President, Sahle-Work Zewde, on Friday invited Chinese consumers to enjoy Ethiopia's coffee after the East African country launched its aromatic coffee on Alibaba Group's shopping platform Tmall Global.
"Dear Chinese friends, in late 2019 the government of Ethiopia and the Alibaba Group entered into a partnership to promote trade and the electronic world trade platform initiative," the Ethiopian president said in a promotional video released on Friday upon the listing of Ethiopian coffee on the Tmall Global platform.
"Since then, despite the challenges of 2020 we have been working closely together," Zewde said, as she emphasized the potential of Ethiopian coffee penetrating Chinese market.
"Now, I'm very happy to announce the official launch of Ethiopian coffee on the Tmall Global platform of the Alibaba Group, which is one success," she added.
Zewde stressed that coffee is a "very important part of our culture and heritage. Millions of people across the world have Ethiopian coffee every day, and millions of Ethiopian farmers work diligently to produce the world's best coffee."
"At this special moment, I would like to invite our Chinese friends to enjoy the flavor and quality of Ethiopian coffee and to strengthen the bonds of friendship between our two countries," she said.
The Ethiopian government had been recently undertaking various measures, mainly an initiative to establish a national umbrella coffee brand to boost the country's share of coffee export in the international market amid growing demand for Ethiopia's specialty coffee.
Ethiopia's ambition to penetrate the emerging Chinese coffee market is mainly attributed to the increasing demand for coffee among China's young population in recent years, it was noted.
Alfoz Plc, one of the leading Ethiopian companies engaged in specialty coffee harvesting, processing and export, also recently disclosed its ambition to boost its export presence in China.
Yohanes Addis, Sales and Marketing Manager at Alfoz Plc, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the company is "looking for opportunities on how to better penetrate the market there in China."
Ethiopia is one of Africa's largest producers of Arabica coffee, in which coffee production is dubbed as the backbone of the country's agriculture-led economy.
