Mehamedamin Kemal has been in the business of coffee trading for more than 11 years, when he traded through the former coffee auction system before joining ECX as a Limited Intermediary Member to trade on the same commodity as supplier of the bean. He is an active actor in the coffee trade through ECX and now he became a full member after winning the recent auction for ECX membership seats.

Mehamedamin remembers a number of troubles that he has gone through in the long years before ECX was started.  “It used to take 10-15 days to get our money for what we sold. We were forced to move from one exporter’s warehouse to the other to sell our coffee. Now ECX has come with an advanced and secured system that shut the door for such frauds. Under the current system you store your coffee in ECX warehouses, you receive receipt for the commodity deposit, you come to the trading floor with the receipts, and trade with buyers and when you agree on the price, your money will be transferred to your account within a day”, Mehamedamin explained.

He added that in the old system they were suffering to sell their coffee because it was sold based on its origin. Especially Sidama area coffee had to stay a week in the warehouse to sell. But it was over when ECX came to existence.    

When explaining what he has found out and how he views the system now, Mehamed said that ECX’s system is really wonderful. He found it transparent, quick, and trustworthy in all its aspects.

According to Mehamedamin, he won a membership seat auction that took place in December, 2009 for 107,100 birr. Now he is compliting the process to own the full membership right.

He intends to work on coffee and maize with his full membership right. He is working hard to have as many clients as he can. He believes that his friendly approach and communication and negotiation skills are benefiting his clients.