Producing countries have always roasted for themselves, very dark according to Ukers, in a pan or a small cylinder. Exporting roasted coffee is another matter, and three obstacles are added to it.

The first is physical: roasted coffee travels poorly, since it degasses and its oils oxidize within the first days, whereas green keeps for months. The second is commercial: brands and distribution are with the consumer. The third is fiscal: customs duties hit the processed product more than green.

Ethiopia tries anyway. The leading African producer, it expects a record 11.6 million bags in 2025/26. It consumes 3.6 million locally, or 2.3 kg per capita. And it has tripled its roasted exports, to more than 27,000 bags in 2023/24. The figure looks big; set against the 5.63 million bags exported, it remains tiny. Coffee earned it 2.7 billion dollars in 2024/25, and its value-added policy targets twenty new markets in Asia and the Middle East.

The American response tells the balance of power. In April 2025, the United States announced a 10% duty on roasted, ground or packaged coffee from Ethiopia. Green remained exempt. The duty was applied in summer 2025. The tariff structure continues to push value toward the consuming country.

Two tools go the other way. Cropster, born in 2007 working with producers, and the 2020 Ikawa-Algrano campaign, which put sample roasters on farms. The idea is the same: give the producer the means to taste what they sell. See the economy.

Ukers 1922, ch. XXV, p. 387; Daily Coffee News, 06/09/2025, after USDA FAS, May 2025; Finance in Africa, Ethiopia's 2.7bn coffee boom at risk (2025, accessed 09/07/2026); FurtherAfrica, 07/18/2024; Cropster, history; Daily Coffee News, 02/05/2020