The Ethiopian Ministry of Transport issued a Multimodal Transport Implementation Directive effective as of January of 2012. The new directive requires all government owned shipment to be transported by the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Enterprise and to be delivered to dry ports and warehouses recognized by the Ethiopian Revenues and customs Authority.

The directive also instructs vehicle shipments of more than three tons to be delivered to dry ports and warehouses.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Trade retracted the directive that required all coffee exports to be shipped in container sized bags.

The directive that established the new shipping system has been made null and void according to Kebede Tchaine Minister of Trade speaking to the Board of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association.

A new urban land lease holding proclamation was passed by the Ethiopian Parliament last Tuesday.

An amendment made to the previous directive puts all old land possessions under the lease system as per the revised proclamation. The new law has not established whether lease payments will be required on previous holdings or if the new arrangements will just legislate a length of time for ownership according to lease arrangements.

It is expected that the detailed principles for the conversion will be determined by the Council of Ministers as per rigorous investigation to be conducted and submitted by the Ministry of Urban Development & Construction.

Ethiopian flower growers expressed their dissatisfaction with the new directive requiring flowers for international export to be measured by the kilogram instead of by the number of stems as previously.

The directive to change the measurement used for flower export was passed by the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA). The agency expects this change to simplify the lengthy processes involved with using flowers stems at unit of measurement for export purposes.