Eager to get more from exports, the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA) is working with regional governments to allot land suitable for flowers, fruits and vegetable growers.
Beginning next year the horticulture agency will establish a land bank that will explore for such types of land.
When materialization of the proposal begins, it would save time and resources investors spend on finding land, conducting research on the soil, and choosing appropriate seeds. Instead, investors can get all preliminary research data stored at the land bank which will make establishing a business of their interest easier and much quicker.
Alem Woldegerima, Director General of EHDA told Capital that profound studies are currently being conducted in Oromia, Tigray, Amhara, and SNNP regions to identify suitable land.
“We need more investors and to get what we need to cut off the tiresome process of locating and studying suitability of the land investors had to do on their own. To curb such problems, we will identify land and we will also prepare the necessary information as well.”
The agency already has around 130, 500 hectares of sorted out land under its possession situated in five corridors of the country.
From the total sorted out land, Bahir Dar has prepared 25, 000 hectares, Oromia Zone 30, 000 hectare and Raya 25, 000 hectares, among others. The agency’s move to sort out land has received acceptance from experts.
Currently, 120 foreign companies engaged in horticulture business cultivated around 1,200 hectares of land creating over 180,000 jobs on the farms.
However, horticulture export is still challenged by the high cost of input materials, absence of sea freight and high fare cost.
Gebremichael Habte, an expert in horticulture said, “we spend 60% of our export revenue on air transport and inputs like chemicals, machines, green house that are mainly imported from Kenya with very high cost. The only country we directly ship flowers to is Belgium, there is no other cargo flight to dispatch flower to the Middle East, Far East, or London, a market with a huge demand for flower.”
Gebremichael suggested that the sector needs more backing in the form of import substitution and expansion of flight destinations. Currently, the national flag carrier, Ethiopia Airlines, transports 150 to 180 tons of flowers to Belgium daily.
[CapitalEthiopia]