“Ethiopia’s coffee grows in highland areas at an altitude of 1 300 metres above sea level, which are not prone to floods,” said Yehasab Achalew of the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Since the coffee belt received plenty of rainfall accompanied by good weather, annual coffee production has increased from an estimated 300 000 tons to 320 000 tons in 2005/06.”

Yehasab, the ministry’s head of coffee, tea and spice development, said a team was assessing coffee production during 2006/07, which he hoped the rains would push higher.

Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee producer, exported 183 000 tons of beans worth $427 million in 2005/06.

Ethiopia halves flood appeal

Meanwhile, Ethiopia halved its appeal for millions of dollars in emergency relief for victims of the country’s worst flooding in a generation as the death toll hit 639, AFP reported on Monday.

Federal authorities said they had revised the appeal from 60.9 million dollars (47.6 million euros) announced Friday to around 27 million dollars after realising they had overestimated emergency food needs.

“The 2006 flash appeal for flooding seeks a total of 27,099,526 dollars to meet the needs of emergency food, non-food, and rehabilitation requirements of the country,” the ammended appeal said.

Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Commission spokesman Getachew Tesfaye said it had mistakenly asked for cash for 88,159 metric tons of food instead of 10,178 metric tons.

The southwestern Omo River valley, where 364 people are confirmed to have died since August 13, and the eastern town of Dire Dawa, where 256 people were killed since August 6, were worst affected by the floods, Simon said.

Nineteen others died in other parts of the country.

Thousands of people are still marooned in the remote southwest and many areas remain cut off, stoking fears of outbreaks of water-borne diseases, officials said.