Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) traded 14.47 billion birr’s worth of agricultural commodities in the first half of the 2017/18 fiscal year, it reported.

Abinet Bekele, ECX’s Chief Officer of Planning and Corporate Communications, said while presenting the Exchange’s performance report, they traded over 317 thousand tons of agricultural commodities in six months.

The trade value of commodities ECX trades on its floors rose by 49 percent, while volume of commodities increased by 29 percent, Abinet added.

Coffee maintained the top spot as the most traded item, scoring a trading of 133,818 tons, with an aggregate value of nine billion birr. Sesame stood second in terms of trade value bringing in 5.2 billion birr, in spite of topping coffee in terms of volume, with 166,691 tons.

Belay Gorfu, ECX Deputy CEO for Trade and Market Operations, remarked that the volume of agricultural produce traded on their floor has risen by 34 percent when compared to what has been achieved in the same time period during the previous year. As major factors for the increase, Belay mentioned the new electronic auction system they have put in place in coffee trading, and the surplus coffee transferred from the previous fiscal year. He also highlighted enhancement of the products of coffee and sesame, fueled by growing global demand for these commodities were also worth being credited as additional factors.

The Deputy CEO, noting ECX’s impact on modernizing Ethiopia’s agricultural trading system, said that the Exchange has also helped enhance the quantity and quality of agricultural produce of the country. He also mentioned that the Exchange gained “satisfactory results in implementing online trading and traceability.”

ECX has since recently started implementing an expansion framework, opening trading centers across the country. Consequently, ECX now has sixty warehouses, while opening 21 branch offices.

Sources: Ethiopian Herald, Fana BC