2merkato

Coffee exports from Ethiopia rose by 38 percent in the fiscal year to 7 July 2011 as shipments of the beans jumped, the Ministry of Trade said.

In a statement released yesterday the ministry said that the total amount of coffee exported over the period reached 2.8 billion dollars.

Coffee was Ethiopia's biggest source of revenue raising 841.7 million dollars from 196,118 tonnes of beans shipped.

The Ethiopian Airlines is going to launch an Addis Ababa-Seychelles flight. The airlines will be operating one flight every week on Sundays, landing in Seychelles at 3:00 pm and departing in an hour.

Ethiopian has filed for slots to fly to the islands of Seychelles during the winter 2011-2012 schedule, which is the period starting 30 October 2011 to 24 March 2012.

The Ethiopia Airlines is one of Africa’s leading carriers, whose efficiency and operational success are not rivalled in the continent.

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.