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Ethiopia is planning, in partnership with Castel (a French wine making group) to start exporting wine from the vineyard near Ziway, 170km to the south of Addis Ababa.

The site was chosen in 2008 and 750,000 vines were planted, employing a labour force of 750, mostly local people.

"We want to export nearly half of our production, especially to the United States, which has a large Ethiopian community," Robel Seido, head of sales at Castel, said. According to Seido, the other half of the production will be set aside for the local market, but it will be of a better quality than the few existing table wines in the country.

Diageo Plc, a London based global alcoholic beverages company, bought Meta Abo, a state-owned brewery for 225 million dollars.

Late in August the Ethiopian government had floated an auction for Meta Abo Brewery weeks after Bedele and Harar breweries were sold to Heineken. British, Dutch and South African breweries were putting bids for Meta Abo, an Ethiopian brewery which brews the Meta Abo beer.

According to sources, Heineken, the Dutch brewery, offered 188 million dollars, while SAB Miller and South West Development (SWD) together bid 190 million dollars followed by Dashen Brewery which offered 173 million dollars.

Arik Air, a Nigerian private airline, asked the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) for permission to start flight services to Addis Ababa.

Over eight months have elapsed since Arik Air asked permission for traffic rights, Dr. Harol de Muren, director general of Nigerian Civil Aviation, said last week in Dare es Salaam at the 17th Aviation and Allied Leadership Conference.

A representative of Arik Air said that Arik Air’s delegation was in Addis Ababa last week to discuss the issue with officials of ECAA.

The Ethiopian Airlines announced last week that it was concluding a deal with Boeing for the purchase of four Boeing 777 freighter aircraft.

A senior official of the airlines said that the management of Ethiopian and executives of Boeing had been negotiating for about a year for the purchase of the new aircraft. The deal will be announced soon according to the official.

The new deal was confirmed by a representative of Boeing who said that Boeing and Ethiopian would sign the agreement in the coming few weeks.