ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government and Korea on Tuesday disclosed its plan to build a coffee park as part of the national plan to promote Ethiopia's specialty coffee products to the international community.
The planned Coffee Park, which will be built jointly by the Ethiopian and South Korean governments at a cost of 50 million U.S. dollars on 30 hectares of land in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, is expected to "play an important role towards promoting Ethiopia's coffee to the international community," state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) quoted Hyiru Nuru, market information and control director at the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, as saying on Tuesday.
According to Nuru, the new coffee park, which will have a coffee museum and coffee market center, as well as various other facilities, will take three years for completion.
The plan to build 50 million U.S. dollars coffee park is also said to be part of Ethiopia's grand plan to penetrate the international coffee market through various initiatives.
Last week, the Ethiopian government had also unveiled a new initiative to establish a national umbrella coffee brand to boost the East African country's share of coffee export in the international market.
The new national initiative, dubbed "Ethiopian Coffee," mainly aimed to spur the acceptance of Ethiopia's coffee in the global market, according to the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority.
The ECTA, which has been developing the new umbrella Ethiopian coffee brand, also said that the new government-led initiative would enhance the current "weak international presence and image" of Ethiopia's major coffee varieties, such as Yirgacheffe, Harrar, and Sidamo coffee.
Adugna Debella, ECTA's Director-General, who noted the new brand of Ethiopian Coffee to have "paramount importance for developing the coffee sector," also stressed that the new initiative would help the East African country to decide and negotiate the price of coffee in the international market.
