Ethiopia’s export earning are up by 16.6% in the last eight months as compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year noted data released by the Ministry of Trade.
Revenue from export was 1.87 billion US dollars while earnings for the same period last year was 1.6 billion US dollars.
The increase in revenue was due to higher earnings from oil seeds and gold although the revenue from the number one national export coffee has shown a decline showed the report.
The increased agricultural output of the country has led officials to set high targets with plans to diversify into new commodities. The devaluation of the birr in 2010 has also helped the national exports to become competitive on the international market according to sources.Gold exports have become the second largest increasing to 370 million US dollars from 253 million US dollars it was noted.
Oil seed exports reached 269 million US dollars also showing an increase from the 192 million US dollars earned in the same period last year. Livestock exports also showed an increase of 59% growing to 149 million US dollars.
Revenue from coffee however continues to fall due to a range of reasons including weather conditions and international prices for the commodity.
Earnings from coffee sales hit 411 million US dollars from 75,113 tons exported which is down from 447 million US dollars from 122,575 tons exported in the same period last year.
Source: Reuters
