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Ethiopia is to increase its import of palm oil and sugar in the next budget year. The government plans to increase the import of palm oil by 56% and sugar by 11% according to the Ministry of Trade.

The decision to increase imports was reached with two thirds of the previous imports still in stock at various warehouses operated by the Merchandise Wholesale and Import Trade Enterprise.  

A change in the size of containers from larger 20 liter jerry cans to smaller 5 and 10 liter ones in the next round of imports is expected to solve issues with distributing oil seen said sources.

The Leather Industry Development Institution, Ethiopia is to import semi-processed leather products. The Ethiopian institute had originally considered importing raw material. The institute made the decision to import leather to solve the shortage of supplies for national tanneries.

The import of semi processed leather will reduce the production process for local tanneries and minimize the environmental impact of the processing according to sources at the institute. 

The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation is to import 300,000 quintals of sugar beginning in February. It is estimated that sugar imports, mainly from Brazil and India, will cost Ethiopia 555 million birr including warehouse rental and transportation.

The sugar will be imported at a cost of 1,850 birr for the quintal and is expected to retail for 1,264.40 per quintal on the Ethiopian market supported by government subsides.  The sugar will be sold by consumers’ cooperative unions and the Merchandise Wholesale and Import Trade Enterprise.

The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation had awarded an Indian based Company called AgroCorp International PTE LTD the bid to provide 75,000 tons of sugar, according to Addis Fortune.

A 150% tax will be imposed on the export of semi-finished leather from Ethiopia as of this month according to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. The move is expected to encourage the export of finished leather and leather products.

The new tax was announced by a joint statement of the MoFED and the Leather Industry Development Institute.