The Senior Communication Expert with the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency Mekonnen Hailu said last Sunday that Ethiopia was intending to expand the revenue from the export of horticulture products to 371 million USD for this 2014-15 fiscal year. Some 245 million USD was obtained from horticulture export last year, MoFA reported.
He said that efforts were underway “to export high-quality products during the reporting period as part of the overall activities to increase the nation’s revenue.” He added that “utilization of modern technology, in particular chemical-free pest control mechanism, is being applied to make the products free of chemicals because chemical-free products have great market demand.”
He said the Government was considering the importance of bolstering the import of horticulture varieties with a view to improve the quality and quantity of products, noting that “The country has already earned 56 million USD from export of over 130 million cut flowers and more than 41,000 tons of vegetables, fruits and herbs during the first quarter of the current budget year.” “Around 44 million USD of this is secured from cut flower export while the balance was earned from vegetables, fruits and herbs.
Mekonnen noted that eighty per cent of the country’s horticultural products were exported, mainly to European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Norway and France. Japan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are other key importers of the nation’s products.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over 120 foreign and domestic companies are currently engaged in horticulture development efforts in Ethiopia. This comes as a result of the Government’s incentives, including duty-free importation of green house energy machinery, the provision of up to seven years tax holiday, and support and priority given to infrastructure development for investment sites, in order to attract FDI and trade inflows in the sector.
[TheEthiopianHerald]