In general, while consuming countries have predominantly been affected through café closures and changes in home coffee consumption, producing countries like Ethiopia have largely seen the following effects:
• Contract cancellations
• Labor shortages
• Logistical delays
• Fluctuating production costs
• Shifts in market demand
In addition to the above challenges the restriction of movement due to COVID-19, there had been a delay in the distribution and availability of the coffee products and also it created a disturbance of existing social collaboration between smallholder farmers in which, they function as a group most of the time. A recent survey also found that nearly half of all farmers have already been forced to change their farm management plans due to COVID-19, with the biggest problems being a lack of access to farm labor (64%) and lack of access to farm inputs (62%).
In Ethiopia, the harvest season runs from October to December. It is labor-intensive and requires relatively free movement of individuals throughout the whole harvest season to ensure that when they are fully ripened, cherries can be picked.
However, the pandemic has made the movement of people a major problem, not just in Ethiopia, but throughout the world. The closure of bars and restaurants has caused the consumption of coffee outside to disappear. Office consumption and consumption via vending machines were also gone.
Drinking coffee in the bar or office has been partially replaced by home-based coffee consumption. For many remote workers, the coffee break has become a "home" and the moments of consumption take place in the home.
Reference
• Castellano, N., 2020. How Has Covid-19 Affected Ethiopian Coffee? Perfect Daily Grind. Available at: https://perfectdailygrind.com/2020/12/how-has-covid-19-affected-ethiopian-coffee/ [Accessed 11 January 2021https://dailycoffeenews.com/2020/07/29/covid-19-making-existing-matters-worse-for-smallholder-farmers-hrns-study-finds/ [Accessed 11 January 2021https://coffeebi.com/2020/05/13/covid-19-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-coffee-consumption-part-2/ [Accessed 12 January 2021].
