The Minister of Industry, Mekonnen Manyazewal said, the government will concentrate on improving the capacity of foreign trade investors both in terms of quality of exports and earnings in conference organized jointly with the Ministry, Ethiopian Development Research Institute and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Thursday.

On the half day consultative forum, the Minister said, enhancing capacity of domestic export producers is among the government’s priority areas and the government will further its incentives through coordinated support and promotion to raise quality of export produce and earnings.

Ethiopian livestock arrived in Qatar offering excellent taste and quality for the company’s clients according to Mawashi, Qatari livestock company.

Mawashi is importing stock directly from Ethiopia for the first time by air cargo as part of its aim to guarantee high standards of quality and freshness.

It is to be remembered that Ethiopia earned 213 million US dollars from the export of meat and livestock in the first ten months of the previous fiscal year according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Ethiopia has earned more than 112.1 million US dollars from the export of leather and leather products during the just ended financial year said the Leather Industry Development Institute.

The revenue obtained in this reporting period is 7.8 million US dollars more than what was earned in the previous financial year explained the press statement from the institute.

An estimated 51.5 million US dollars of the total amount of revenue earned was acquired from the export of processed leather explained the statement. 

Pea exports from Ethiopia have shown significant increases with more than 162 tons of fresh peas worth an estimated 500 thousand Euros exported in the just concluded financial year.

Snow peas and sugar snap are the major varieties being exported to South Africa and Europe with seven farms growing and exporting peas in the 2011-12 financial year.

There were only three farms and peas were not a major vegetable export in the previous budget year said Yelak Negash, General Manager of Akirma Agro Service plc.

Ethiopia has earned 3.1 billion US dollars in revenue from foreign trade in the just ended financial year according to the Ministry of Trade.

The revenue was earned from the export of 1.25 million tons of items exported during the fiscal year according to Amakele Yemam, Public Relations and Communications Director with the ministry.

The revenue earned in this last financial year was 14.8% higher than the 2.7 billion birr raised in the previous reporting period.