2merkato

Ethiopia’s trade deficit remains high in spite of notable increases in exports. The gap in the trade balance is failing to lessen because many raw materials used by significant projects, including infrastructure, are imported according to Abdurrahman Seid, Public Relations Deputy Coordinator at the Ministry of Trade.

Import requirements associated with infrastructural development in particular affect the trade deficit because of the massive infrastructure projects that are currently being implemented in the country he said.

Experts from the Commodity Exchange in Ethiopia are to train stakeholders and personnel of the Ghanaian Commodity Exchange according to Ms. Hanna Tetteh Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry.

The training is to begin in the first quarter of 2012 she said.

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange signed a settlement agreement with Oromia Cooperative Bank, Ethiopia last Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by Wondimagegn Negera President of Oromia Cooperative Bank and Ahadu Wubshet, Chief Operations Officer at the ECX. 

Note: the veracity of this story has been disputed by the Institute if Bio-Diversity Conservation. Their correction/comment is found in the comments section.

A Netherlands company, Soil and Crop, has allegedly defaulted on an agreement with Ethiopia’s Institute of Bio-Diversity Conservation. Soil and Crop and the Institute of Bio-Diversity Conservation, Ethiopia reached an arrangement on marketing teff products in 2005.

The agreement reached between the two bodies requires Soil and Crop to acknowledge the Ethiopian origins of teff, collaborate on research programs, pay for license renewal and share profits with the Ethiopian governmental institute.