The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange has postponed the bid opening date for 30 membership seat tender floated exclusively for farmer's cooperatives, to May 16, 2013. The original bid opening date was set for April 31.

The reason given by Exchange is to encourage more participation by farmer's cooperatives. ECX is expecting 200 farmer's cooperatives to participate, according to Abenet Assefa, Chief Strategy Officer at the Exchange.

So far, about 30 farmer's cooperatives have bought bid documents, according to Abenet.

EXC has set the initial price for the bid at 100,000 Ethiopian birr, a much lower price compared to recent bids.

"The seats are only available to cooperatives, so that they do not encounter steep competition, limiting their participation, as previously witnessed", Abenet said.

The thirty seats floated are each designated for trading a specific type of commodity. Twelve seats are alloted for coffee, however the apportionment is under revision.

"once the seats are awarded, they can trade in commodities other than the designated one as well" Abenet told Fortune.

Cooperatives participating in the bid are required to have assets worth between half a million and one million Ethiopian Birr.

If all seats are sold in the current tender, ECX membership will reach 259.

Source: Fortune