January 9, 2010 -- The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) traded about 170,000 tonnes of coffee valued over 4.2 billion birr in 2009, said Eleni Z. G.Medhine, CEO of ECX.

“We traded 4.2 billion birr of coffee in 2009 from December 2, 2008 to December 1st 2009. The beans were traded with no one single payment default or delay or transaction error, “ Dr. Eleni said. “That is astounding over one year of coffee trading which, I think, nobody will dispute.”

“The fact that traders offer up to 3.3 million birr for membership seat at ECX on the first auction we issued very recently indicates that any doubt that the Exchange may or may not succeed was dispelled particularly after we started the coffee trading” the CEO said. “As coffee trading at the Exchange became evidently successful, there are more and more requests to join to the Exchange since the last several months.”

Source: Reporter