Title: Quality infrastructure services capability assessment in the coffee value chain

Authors: Mesfin Demissie; Dagne Tsegaye; Birhanu Beshah; Frank Ebinger

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Addis Ababa Institutes of Technology (AAIT), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ' School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Addis Ababa Institutes of Technology (AAIT), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ' School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Addis Ababa Institutes of Technology (AAIT), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ' Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Oh, Nuernberg, Germany

Abstract: Coffee generates about 25%-30% of total export and securing about 15 million people's livelihoods in Ethiopia. But, it has several quality issues. Studies show a total of 272 million USD of which 99% is due to the non-conformance cost of the export product incurred annually. This justifies mitigating quality problems in the sector is important. Therefore, to deal with this issue coffee quality related data were collected from Ethiopian National Quality Infrastructure Institutions (ENQI) and Coffee Quality Inspection and Certification Association (CLU). Eighteen experts purposively selected from both institutes were asked to associate quality service with defects. Finally, lack of accreditation has the highest contribution followed by conformity and metrology with a share of 83.3%, 75%, and 54% for defects points. Moreover, issues like control of temperature and humidity in storage and transport, lack of soil nutrition testing, inspection performance, and commitment to standards implementation are issues that needs to be improved.

Keywords: national quality infrastructure; NQI; coffee value chain; CVC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJQI.2021.117189

International Journal of Quality and Innovation, 2021 Vol.5 No.2, pp.158 - 180

Received: 13 Aug 2020
Accepted: 01 Mar 2021

Published online: 20 Aug 2021 *

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