Presentation by Bart Minten, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI, made during the “International value chains in agriculture: challenges and opportunities to address gender inequalities” session at the WTO PUBLIC FORUM 2016

1. Inclusive international agricultural value
chains: The case of coffee in Ethiopia
Bart Minten
Geneva – WTO
September 29, 2016
1

2. Outline
1. Gender and agriculture in Ethiopia
2. Gender and coffee
3. The potential of certification

3. 1. Gender and agriculture in Ethiopia
• 80 percent of the population residing in rural areas
• Women majority of the agricultural labor in these
communities.
• Women’s access to resources and community
participation are usually mediated through men, either
their fathers or husbands
• When women have access to their own income, they are
more likely than men to spend it on the betterment of
their families and successfully participate in village
savings or pay school fees for their children.
• Higher empowerment of women also linked to better
nutrition

4. 1. Gender and agriculture in Ethiopia
WEAI=1: Women completely empowered
WEAI=0: Women completely disempowered
[production; resources; income; leadership; time]
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Women Empowerment Agriculture Index

5. 1. Gender and agriculture in Ethiopia
• The percentage of plots managed by men is higher than plots
managed by women.
Crop category Man Woman Joint Others
Coffee 0.46 0.03 0.49 0.01
Chat 0.57 0.02 0.40 0.01
Fruits/vegetables 0.43 0.04 0.51 0.01
Staple crops 0.48 0.03 0.47 0.01
Oilseeds & pulses 0.48 0.05 0.46 0.01
Others 0.52 0.00 0.48 0.00
Total 0.48 0.03 0.48 0.01

6. 6
2. Gender and coffee
• Coffee in Ethiopia:
- Most important African coffee exporter; 10th biggest
coffee exporter in the world; 3% of the international
market
- Coffee about a quarter of the value of Ethiopia’s exports
- Income for over 4 million farmers
- Important role in social gatherings as well as for local
consumption (half of production consumed locally)

7. 2. Gender and coffee
53%
3%
44%
Responsibility of farming on the
plot
Man Woman Both
47%
48%
3%
2%
Right to decide what to grow on
parcel
Man Both Woman Community(outside hh)

8. 2. Gender and coffee
• Labor:
- men are highly engaged in most of the coffee production
activities
- women are mainly engaged in harvesting and post-harvesting
activities
Male-Adult Female-Adult Child
Tree management 88 8 4
Mulching 84 12 5
Tilling/ hoeing 91 5 4
Manure and compost application 63 30 8
Weeding 86 8 5
Chemical fertilizer 90 8 3
Harvesting 68 24 8
Post-harvest activities 58 37 5
Total time 78 16 6

9. • Sales mostly done by men; they control income (as is the case
of most cash crops in developing countries).
2. Gender and coffee
0
20
40
60
80
Adult men Adult woman Child Mix
Dry cherry Red cherry

10. 3. The potential of certification
• Growing emphasis on Voluntary Sustainability
Standards (VSS) practices globally, in
response to social/environmental pressure
• VSS rapidly taking off in the world
0
5
10
15
20
2005 2010 2015
%
Ethiopia World

11. 3. The potential of certification
• One desired impact for sustainability standards
systems is sometimes gender equality.
• These standards systems track gender equality and
female representation through the supply chain.
• For example, a critical criterion for certification to the
Sustainable Agriculture Network standard, (which
forms the backbone of the Rainforest Alliance
ecolabel): workers cannot be discriminated against
on the basis of religion, gender or race.

12. Export level
• Premiums over the years 2006 to 2014: 88 Usc/lb
• When control for quality, certification premium 7%
0
.002.004.006.008
.01
Density
0 200 400 600
US cents/lb)
non-certified certified

13. • Transmission of 33% of the export premium to the
producer
Producer level
0
.05
.1
.15
.2
.25
Density
0 5 10 15
Birr/kg)
cert. coop non-cert. coop
non-coop

14. • Two-thirds of the quality premium not transmitted.
Where did it go?
1. Overheads. 30% of premiums goes to unions, to pay
for doing deals, aggregation, etc. Certification costs.
3 USc/lb (about 20% of the premium). Sometimes
paid by unions; sometimes by primary cooperatives.
2. Cooperative use of premiums. Mostly investments
in communal assets such as schools, roads, etc. but
also offices, cars, etc.
3. Repayments of debts. Bought coffee at too high a
price; price dropped and losses were incurred. Also
loans for wet mills that have to be repaid.
What explains the gap?

15. Potential of certification
• Median coffee farmer in Ethiopia sells 400 kgs of red
cherries equivalent; If all sold certified and all sold as
red cherries, it would increase his income with 144
Birr per year or 7.5 USD per year…; Even if assumed
complete efficiency (100% transmission), increased
annual income of 20 USD per year…
• In current form, little incentives to change practices;
explains slow growth of VSS in Ethiopia

16. Potential of certification
• Test if desired indicators of certification are really
different (technology adoption; organic practices;
labor of children; schooling of children);
[In tested certification schemes unfortunately no
explicit gender target]
• In general, some evidence that there are benefits on
these indicators from being a member but results
not that strong
• Therefore, still issues with implementation of these
certification schemes in these settings