The Middle East became a potential market for Ecuadorian specialty coffee, followed by the Nordic countries and, in the long term, Oceania. Research into these markets has led Ecuadorian companies to want to position themselves as one of the suppliers of this product, according to the executive president of Agropecuaria González Ramos (Agrogora), Wilson González. And as part of the presentation to those markets, this time in the Middle East, Ecuador is participating for the first time in the World of Coffee Dubai 2024 fair, which started on January 21 this year and will be open until Tuesday, January 23 in Dubai, the businessman said. .

The production and export companies Agrogora and Olinka Veléz, in a public-private alliance, will represent the country at the fair, where more than 223 exhibitors from various countries will participate, and it is expected that about 10,000 visitors will visit it. among them importers, exporters, retailers and coffee brokers. “We represent two companies that produce and export specialty coffee. We launched this private initiative (to promote coffee and create product visibility) for which we have the support of Proecuador through the Ministry of Production, which allowed us to achieve our first participation as a country in this fair in its third edition.”

González indicated that it is “a relatively new fair, however, it has had exponential growth covering markets such as the Middle East, which focuses not only on Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, but also on Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries,” which he therefore considers that it is an opportunity for Ecuador and the sector to expose these value-added products to a consumer market that is willing to pay for quality, traceability and origin.

As a result of participating in the fair, González expects between $1.5 and $2.5 million in business opportunities. “We have already made contact through a public-private alliance to generate meetings with important players in this value chain in Dubai, which is like a logistics hub for entering the Middle East market.”

According to the businessman, in 2023, the export of the specialty coffee sector concluded with an estimated 12 to 15 million dollars, and by 2024, they expect to grow to at least 18 million dollars or 20 million dollars as a sector. “Specialty coffee has been experiencing exponential growth since 2018, 2019. Five or six years ago, as a country, we exported 2 or 3 million dollars, currently we are talking about four times more.”

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The export to Dubai, at least Agrogore – revealed González – was very specific, they achieved it two years ago, which was the first opening and the first framework for what they are doing now.

In addition to looking for opportunities in the Middle East with specialty coffee, they are also exploring the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway) for which they have already worked on projects together with the Government. “These are the countries that consume the most coffee per inhabitant, but there is no commercial relationship between the country of producers and them, but triangulation is done, for example Ecuador, France or Germany, and from there France or Germany with Sweden. , Norway, etc., so we see that there is an opportunity in the Nordic countries as well…”.

In the long term, according to González, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand) is also in the spotlight “it is a market that is growing quite a bit, especially in coffee consumption and as this culture of coffee consumption develops for value-additional specialty, for original coffee, there is that demand, that demand also grows from them to us.”