Ethiopia's biggest coffee year ever.
Ethiopia earned about $3 billion from coffee exports in 2025/26, a national record, at an average near $7,500 per ton. What is behind the number and what it means for buyers.
Ethiopia earned roughly three billion dollars from coffee exports in the 2025/26 season. That is a national record, and it came from a combination of higher volumes and a much stronger price, with the average export price rising to around $7,500 a ton from roughly $6,000 the season before.
Who bought it
Saudi Arabia, Germany and China led the destinations for the season. That ordering is worth noting because a lot of marketing material still describes Germany as Ethiopia's largest coffee buyer, which was true in earlier years and is not a safe claim for this one. The Gulf is not an emerging market for Ethiopian coffee. It is the market.
Who grew it
Around 4.5 million smallholder families grow more than ninety percent of Ethiopia's coffee, most on plots under a hectare. A record export year is therefore not a story about a few large estates having a good season. It is millions of very small harvests aggregated through washing stations, dry mills and exporters.
What it changes for a buyer
A record year is a supplier's market, and in a supplier's market the discipline that protects you is documentation rather than optimism. Prices are firm, good lots move quickly, and the pressure to commit before you have cupped is higher than usual. The answer is not to move slower, it is to insist that what you are shown carries its evidence: the station, the date, the moisture and water activity, and a cup score with the score sheet attached.
The national target is six billion dollars by 2031. Whether or not that lands, the direction of travel is more coffee, more exporters clearing a higher licensing bar, and more buyers arriving. See what specialty green actually costs for the price side of the same picture.