ድህነትን ለመዋጋት የወይን ኢንዱስትሪ ማስፋፋት

Proposal to Establish a Poverty ­Fighting Wine Industry within Ethiopia 

Background 

With 85% of its employees working in the farming sector and an estimated $900 of GDP per capita, 

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. 1 As a result, 70% of Ethiopians earn less than 

$2 per day, while almost 50% survive on less than $1 per day. 

This project was conceived following discussions during which Prime Minister Meles Zenawi 

expressed an interest in the creation of an economically and socially beneficial wine industry within 

Ethiopia; one that might expand upon its recent successes with high‐quality coffee. 

At the request of the International Society of Africans in Wine (ISAW), a 501(c)3 based in Atlanta, a 

team of six students and one professor from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School (see 

Appendix A) traveled to Ethiopia to analyze the feasibility of encouraging the development of a 

commercial wine industry in and around Addis Ababa. The specific charge was to assess the 

prospects of developing an economically‐viable and socially‐responsible wine cluster and then 

provide specific recommendations.

The team travelled to Ethiopia in August, 2010 and met with government and industry leaders and 

visited different farming regions along with the recently‐planted Castel Vineyard. In particular, we 

met with His Excellency, President Girma Woldegiorgis, to discuss his vision for wine production 

within Ethiopia. We also met with Dr. Abera Deressa and Mr. Haileselassie Tekie, the Minister of 

Agriculture and Director General of Horticulture, respectively, to discuss historical land surveys and 

the prospect of obtaining government land to plant vineyards. Another set of meetings was with Mr. 

Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee cooperative. As the largest and most 

successful coffee cooperative in Ethiopia, we were able to draw parallels between the successes 

that he had achieved with coffee and potential economic successes in the wine industry. 

This report documents the viability of a quality‐oriented anti‐poverty initiative for Ethiopia in the 

wine industry. It outlines the considerable potential and the various impediments before proposing 

an interconnected set of programs that will collectively address these obstacles.  

The success of the proposed endeavors is linked to the potential to create a quality‐based identity 

for Ethiopia in the wine market. At the same time, a key point of differentiation for Ethiopia (at least 

initially) relates to the strong social mission of this project. To our knowledge, this represents the 

first attempt to develop a wine‐producing region with the primary aim of reducing poverty. By 

paying careful attention to the design of this wine industry cluster, many of the ensuing economic 

benefits should flow directly to Ethiopian farmers and their families.

 

We therefore make a strong business case for the centrality of a clear and strong anti‐poverty 

mission for this project. More specifically, we outline a number of specific market ‘subsidies’ that 

follow such a commitment; i.e., examples of the financial, knowledge and market‐access support 

that might be expected. 

ተጨማሪ ለማንበብ ካሹ እዚህ ይጫኑ