The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced it will further strengthen the warehouse receipt financing scheme during the opening of the Warehouse Receipt System for Inclusive Agricultural Finance Symposium.

The scheme makes farmers eligible for bank loan using their Warehouse Receipt issued by the Exchange for commodities stored in ECX warehouses as collateral.

ECX Chief Executive Officer, Eleni Gebre-Medhin, told participants at the Warehouse Receipt Systems for Inclusive Agricultural Finance Symposium, organized jointly by ECX and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), amount exceeding 1.5 million USD warehouse receipt financing service was made available to framers last year. The scheme has considerably assisted smallholder farmers who would have no choice but to sell produce at low prices.

IFC Global Trade Supply Chain Solutions Director Georgina Baker also stated that the country had been the most successful example of IFC's Warehouse Receipt Financing initiative in Africa.

The Warehouse Receipt Financing scheme was launched in March last year. Farmers' cooperatives, which embrace smallholder farmers mainly producing Maize, wheat, sesame and white pea beans are  benefiting from the financing scheme. ECX is planning to further expand the scheme to other areas.

Ethiopian Commodity Exchange was set up nearly 4 years ago in April 2008. The Exchange has been serving all the players in the market such as producers, whole sellers/distributors, insitututional buyers and exporters.

Source: The Ethiopian Herald