Revenue from flower exports grew to 212.5 million US dollars in Ethiopia in the last financial year. The revenue is fourteen percent higher than the money earned in the previous fiscal year because flower exports has grown to 2.1 billion stems from 1.8 billion stems.
The increase in revenue is attributed to the implementation of newly enacted control mechanisms.
The new mechanisms put in place eliminated the previous system whereby custom officials just counted the stems in selected boxes to estimate exports allowing a loophole for exporters to retain some retain some revenue outside of the country.
The new system introduced standardized 12 kilogram boxes each with the capacity to hold 10.8 kilograms of flower.The introduction of the new system is expected to increase revenues to 274.6 million US dollars from the export of nearly 2.8 billion stems noted the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency.
The system has also been able to reduce the number of flowers that were damaged in transit to export destinations and thus enables the revenue earned by each load according to an expert with the agency.
The international market was experiencing shortages in flower supply in the just concluded budget year due to bad weather conditions in Kenya which hampered the largest flower exporter to the European market.
Large stem flowers were sold at prices as much as 1.27 US dollars in February while small stem flowers 0.47 US dollars.
Flowers were the fifth largest Ethiopian export in the previous fiscal year with 73 flower farms active currently.
Source: Addis Fortune
