AFRICA – Ethiopia eyes $2.5bln revenues of agricultural exports

Ethiopia is planning to earn a total of over $2.5 billion revenue from its exports of agricultural products during the current budget year, which began in July, an official with the Ministry of Trade said on Sunday.
“The stated amount of revenue will be secured from the export of more than 1.1 million tons of agricultural products,” Abdurrahman Se’id, Public Relation Deputy Head of the Ministry, told Anadolu Agency.
He said the products include coffee, oil seeds, cereals, khat, spices, natural gum and incense among others.
“The revenue is projected to surpass by 16.3 percent that of the $2.1 billion income earned during the previous budget year,” he added.
The target is taking into consideration the growth of agricultural products, market system efficiency, capacity of the exporters and suppliers of the products, he said.
The biggest export item will be coffee followed by oil seeds, Se’id said.
Around $862 million of the total revenue is expected from the export of coffee, which contributes the lion’s share in the country’s economy, he said.
“The country will also export 362,422 tons of oil seeds and secure over $724.8 million revenue in this fiscal year,” he added.
Coffee is believed to have been first discovered in Ethiopia’s south-west region of Kaffa/Caffa, with its name derived from the region.
Africa’s largest coffee producer, Ethiopia generated some $718 million from coffee exports during the 2013/14 financial year.