Ethiopia: Export income dwindles by 9 pct

Continuing its decline Ethiopia’s export income for the first nine months of the fiscal year goes down by about 9 percent compared to the same time last fiscal year.

Ethiopia has earned USD 1.9 billion from export from July 2019 to March 2019. Last year in the same period Ethiopia exported worth USD 2.09 billion. The plan by the government for the first nine months of this fiscal year was to earn USD 3.10 billion. But it has only achieved about 61 percent of its target, according to Wondimu Filate, Communications Affairs head at the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ethiopia, who briefed reporters this afternoon.

Ethiopia’s import bill, on the other hand, has been going up over the past years, surpassing USD 17 billion last year. Wondimu stated that compared to the same time last year, the global price of coffee has declined by 19 percent this year. He also mentioned that the fact that the country is not adding value to coffee, oilseeds and other agricultural products before export has also contributed to the income decline, as reported by New Business Ethiopia.

Also Read: Ethiopia: Addis Ababa to hold international trade fair and forum at a large scale in May