Specialty Coffee & Oilseed Export Trading Company Under New Directive 1082/2025

Ethiopia is posting record FDI figures — USD 4.32 billion in fiscal year 2025/26, an 8% year-on-year increase — driven by sweeping macroeconomic reforms, a floating birr, and 528 new investment licenses issued by the Ethiopian Investment Commission. The government has liberalised previously closed trade sectors under Directive 1082/2025, opening import, export, wholesale, and retail markets to foreign investors, including the right to export raw coffee, oilseeds, and livestock. WTO accession negotiations have reached a 'decisive juncture' as of April 2026, with bilateral market-access deals under active finalisation. Ethiopia's renewable energy market — estimated at 8.64 GW in 2026 — is growing at a projected 20.9% CAGR to 2031, anchored by industrial-park solar manufacturing and the Ethiopia–Kenya HVDC power export corridor. Meanwhile, the new Dire Dawa Free Trade Zone and horticulture export growth are creating structural gaps in cold-chain logistics that remain largely unserved by private capital.

Ethiopia's Investment Board Directive 1082/2025, enacted in June 2025, for the first time authorises foreign investors to directly export raw coffee, oilseeds, and livestock — sectors previously reserved exclusively for domestic traders. Ethiopia is simultaneously advancing WTO accession negotiations that 'reached a decisive juncture' in April 2026, signalling further trade-facilitation reforms that will compress export transaction costs for early movers.

Market drivers:

- Directive 1082/2025 opens coffee and oilseed export licensing to foreign and diaspora-owned firms for the first time in decades

- Ethiopia is Africa's largest coffee producer and global specialty-coffee demand continues to grow, with European roasters actively seeking traceable single-origin supply

- WTO accession progress and AfCFTA membership are reducing tariff and customs friction for Ethiopian agricultural exports to regional and global markets

Risks:

- Birr liquidity and forex repatriation constraints persist despite the 2024 float — exporters must navigate National Bank of Ethiopia hard-currency rules

- Regional insecurity in coffee-growing Oromia and ethnic tensions documented by the Capital Newspaper can disrupt supply chains and logistics