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The price of food rose to 40.7 percent in May from 32.2 percent in April according to Central Statistical Agency’s (CSA) consumer price index released on Tuesday, 14 June 2011.

Food price was deflating at the beginning of the current fiscal year. But since September prices have been escalating after the birr was devaluated against the dollar by 17 percent. The overall annual year on year inflation has now reached the two-year mark.

After assessing the situation in Ethiopia, the International Monetary Fund mission three weeks ago said that rising prices would slowdown the country’s economic growth. IMF’s prediction put Ethiopia’s economic growth for the coming fiscal year at around six percent which contrasts with the government’s estimate of 11 percent.

Source: Capital

Adami Tulu Pesticide Processing SC is scheduled to inaugurate mosquito nets and herbicides factories built at a total cost of 26 million birr in August.

The factories will be constructed by Adami Tulu, a government owned company established in 1998, near Ziway, Oromia Regional State, at a cost of 40.5 million birr.

The machinery for the mosquito net factory was imported from China. It is expected that the factory will save Ethiopia 4.5 million dollars, which accounts for about 40 percent of the cost of importing mosquito nets annually.

"When it reaches full capacity, the factory will produce all three million mosquito nets thereby saving the country up to 14 million dollars in foreign currency with the expertise and technological knowhow from the Chinese company," Samuel Samuel Halala, general manager of Adami Tulu, said.

The factory will buy emulsifiers and mineral fillers locally, while it will import other raw materials like active ingredients for pesticide production.

Adami Tulu had planned to make 154 million birr this fiscal year; however, it collected 97 million birr over the last 10 months. In the planting season, however, it expects to earn more than the target in the coming two months.

Source: Fortune

Resumes domestic, regional flights

Ethiopian Airlines announced yesterday that it had launched a new flight service to Malakal, South Sudan, effective as of 17 June 2011. Ethiopian will provide the new flight services four times a week.

The new flight service to the oil rich town of Malakal is Ethiopian’s second destination to the South Sudan and the 62nd international destination.

“The new flight services to Malakal provide the best connectivity and convenience for business people as well as the general public of the South Sudan,” Tewolde Gebre-Mariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, said.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Airlines announced Saturday that it had resumed all domestic flights to to Axum, Bahir Dar, Gondar, Dire Dawa, Humera Jijiga Lalibela, Makelle and Shire and regional flights to Khartoum and Djibouti which had been temporarily suspended because of the volcanic ash cloud as of Monday, 15 June 2011.

The decision to resume flights was made based on meteorological forecasts which indicated that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Eritrea had cleared. And the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority had confirmed that the northern Ethiopian airspace was now safe to fly according to Abebe Angessa, director of Ethiopian Domestic Market and Sales Service.

Ethiopian is making more than 60 domestic flights each week.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Allana Potash could consider expanding potash mining operations at the Danakhil potash project in Ethiopia with a larger production facility in an upcoming feasibility study, Farhad Abasov, president and CEO of Allana Potash, said.  

The company was planning a production of 1million tonnes of potash a year, according to Abasov who said that it could increase its production goals.

The company declared yesterday a much anticipated resource expansion and upgrade which confirmed the substantial size of its potash beds. From a previous 100 million tonne inferred resource, Allana cracked out a 673 million tonne measured and indicated resource at 18.65 percent potassium chloride (KCl) with a further 596 million tonnes at 19.96 percent KCl in the inferred category. Abasov noted that the resources would form the basis of a feasibility study slated for later this year.

Abasov said that talks were underway with partners for off-take and financing agreements covering its Danakhil potash project.

In 2009 Allana had signed on China Minerals United (CMU) as strategic investor with both agreeing to negotiate a 20 percent off take agreement in return for 35 percent or about 280 million dollar portion of Danakhil's construction costs. But the CMU deals has not been finalised yet.

The potash mineralization in the Danakil Depression is well known, with mining carried out sporadically from the early 1900s. Other mining corporations in the basin include BHP Billiton and India's Sainik Coal Mining, which is planning to start mining at the Musley deposit.

Source: Mineweb

Ethiopian Potash Corp. was listed on the OTCQX and that it had begun trading on the OTC market's highest tier, OTCQX under the symbol "ETPHF", David Wahl, President and CEO, announced yesterday.

Soloway Group LLP will assist as Ethiopian Potash Corp's Principal American Liaison on OTCQX, responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements.

The OTCQX marketplace is the premier tier of the U.S. Over-the-Counter market. Investor-focused companies use the quality controlled OTCQX listing platform to offer investors transparent trading, superior information, and easy access through their regulated U.S. broker-dealers. The innovative OTCQX platform offers companies and their shareholders a level of marketplace services formerly available only on a U.S. exchange.

Ethiopian Potash Corp. is a Canadian company based in Toronto, Ontario and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The company has acquired a 481 sq km potash asset, in the Danakil depression of northern Ethiopia.

It is to be recalled that George Roach, board chairman of Ethiopian Potash Corp, had announced in the last week of May 2011 that the company's drilling rigs were in the process of being commissioned and were expected to start operation early in June.

The Danakil Depression has one of the largest undeveloped potash resources in the world. The fact that it lays almost on the surface of the ground as opposed to those in Saskatchewan, which are found deeper than one kilometre in the earth, testifies to its significance. Ethiopian Potash Corp has two neighbouring development concessions covering 481 sq km in the centre of the Danakil Depression.

Source: Marketwire

Mesfin Industrial Engineering launched Saturday an assembly plant for Addis Car in partnership with Geely International Corp, a Chinese manufacturer. Addis Cars will assemble Geely cars powered by 1.3cc engines and equipped with double airbags and an anti-breaking system.

Mesfin has been assembling trucks and this is the first time for it to assemble automobiles. With the machinery the company imported for 10 million birr, it is capable of assembling five Geely automobiles at a time and over 800 a year.

Mesfin Industrial had imported 34 completely built units of Geely cars to test its appeal to middleclass customers at the end of 2010. The cars were sold at 285,000 birr each, which encouraged Mesfin Industrial to install the assembly plant, according to Yusuf, manager of sales and promotion at Mesfin Industrial.

Mesfin also has the sole distribution rights in Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan where Geely is not licensed to distribute. The company has been the exclusive importer and distributor of Geely cars in Ethiopia since August 2010.

By February 2011, 13 vehicle and tractor assembly companies were licensed and started operation. Some of companies are owned by foreigners, according to the Ethiopian Investment Agency.

Source: Fortune

Ethiopia earned over 8.2 million dollars from the export of garments and textile products this year, the Textile Industry Development Institute announced.

Compared with the income earned last year, this year’s earning has increased by 164.5 percent. The institute said in a press statement over the weekend that the amount of revenue the country earned in May this year exceeded that of the same period last year by 5.1 million dollars.

By May 2009, the country had earned 3.1 million dollars from the export of textile products for the 2008/09 fiscal year. Garments, textiles, yarn and fabric products earned about 59.8 percent, 19.8 percent, 19.3 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

Those which earned the highest income in the textile and garment industry include Ayka Addis Textile & Investment, MAA Garment Factory, Kombolcha Textile and Adama Yarn Factory. Value-added apparel accounted for 49.3 percent among the exported items of the general textile products this year.  

Source: Fortune, ENA   

The Ethiopian Airlines announced that it would restart flights to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, today after they were temporarily suspended as a result of ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Eritrea.

The ash cloud is expected to clear soon, allowing flights to destinations in eastern and northern Ethiopia to reopen, Ethiopian Airlines, sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest carrier by passenger numbers, revealed in a statement.

The volcanic eruption which caused the temporary suspension of flights to destinations in northern Ethiopia occurred early Monday morning at Dubbi, 350 km north of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Source: Bloomberg

Ethiopia to be part of the free trade zone

African trade officials met this week in Johannesburg to launch negotiations for a free trade area (FTA) which would embrace more than 26 countries, and about a trillion dollars of economic output.

The proposed deal would unite three existing trade blocs in central, eastern and southern Africa. It is believed that the free trade area will do away with most trade barriers between participating countries. African leaders said that the Free Trade Area (FTA) would be practical within three years.

Two of the blocs, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), have already been enjoying tariff- and quota-free trade.

In the mean time, the third bloc, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), only has levies on 15 percent of goods and should be removing those by January.

When the negotiations are concluded, the enlarged FTA would include Ethiopia, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Commerce within Africa is limited with not more than 10 percent of the continent's trade being conducted between African countries, while the balance goes overseas.
After its formation is complete, the free trade area will be hopefully open to regions throughout the whole continent, Diouf of the African Agency for Trade and Development said.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, Reuters

Hewlett Packard (HP) launched this week a Toner Cartridge Authentication (TCA) program to help customers confirm the purchase of original HP toner cartridges.

The new technology works on select HP LaserJet printers such as HP Colour LaserJet Pro CP5225 Series, HP LaserJet Pro M1530 MFP Series, HP LaserJet Pro P1100 Series, HP LaserJet Pro P1560 Series and HP LaserJet Pro P1600 Series.

The HP – TCA is free software that validates whether the installed cartridge is an original HP LaserJet toner cartridge or an alternative supply, such as a remanufactured, refilled, cloned or counterfeit cartridge.

When the cartridge is not a genuine HP cartridge, the TCA will present users with additional information to address potential counterfeiting.  If a user receives a notification when they believe they have purchased an Original HP cartridge, they will be directed to HP’s Anti-counterfeit website to report the potential counterfeit cartridge.

The new product is available to customers all over Africa who can download the HP TCA Software and apply it on any HP LaserJet printer that supports the digital authentication

Over the last four years, HP has assisted in the seizure of nearly nine million pieces of fake printing supplies products and components in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Source: HP press release