For the third consecutive year, the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA), in partnership with the Inter-African Coffee Organisation (IACO) convened African Coffee Week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 2–6 February 2026. The week brought together policymakers, private sector leaders, development partners, researchers, and producer organizations to advance dialogue and action on the future of Africa's coffee sector.
Within this framework, AFCA, IACO, and the International Trade Centre (ITC) jointly hosted the 3rd Annual Coffee Week Policy and Networking Reception, an event for targeted policy dialogue, peer exchange, and collaboration among senior policymakers, private sector leaders, development partners, and producer representatives from EAC partner states.
The policy reception was built on outcomes from the AFCA 2025 Policy Dinner in Dar es Salaam, which led to the establishment of the Coffee Advocacy Working Group (CAWG). Over the past year, CAWG held four successful online meetings, conducted a member survey, and reached consensus on priority constraints and solutions that require coordinated regional and continental action.
In his opening remarks, AFCA Executive Director and Coffee Advocacy Working Group Chair, Gilbert Gitali, began by noting recent progress. 'Since the 2025 Policy Dinner, the Coffee Advocacy Working Group has turned ideas into real priorities,' he said. 'This event showed that African coffee stakeholders are ready to work together to strengthen and support Africa's coffee sector.'
During the reception, participants discussed on four main priorities:
- Streamlining the coffee trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), including addressing non-tariff barriers and border inefficiencies, and scaling successful cases such as the export of Rwandan speciality coffee to Ghana.
- Strengthening price risk management capacity for cooperatives and SMEs in response to extreme volatility in global coffee markets.
- Exploring digital tools for position and price risk management to support improved decision-making by coffee enterprises.
- Designing a pilot project linking price risk management with access to finance for cooperatives.
Participants contributed through group discussions, moving between topics and sharing ideas. Their input will help shape a technical policy paper that will guide the implementation of plan of activities for the upcoming year.
In his closing remarks, Solomon Rutega, Secretary General of IACO, stressed the need to turn discussions into action, saying: 'We must move decisively from dialogue to implementation.' He confirmed IACO's commitment to working with AFCA, CAWG members, and development partners such as ITC to improve AfCFTA trade facilitation and make risk management solutions more accessible to African coffee producers.
EU-EAC MARKUP II continues to demonstrate the importance of public and private groups working together to reduce trade barriers, manage market risks, and build resilience in Africa's coffee value chains.