Ethiopia: Effective Policy Implementation to Augment Agricultural Products' Export Volume

Currently, Ethiopia receives 76 percent of its export earnings from its agricultural products such as Coffee, Oilseeds, Chat, Pulses, Cut Flowers, Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy and meat among others. The first 5 commodities cover 28.7 percent, 14.5 percent, 11.4 percent, 10.2 percent and 9.6 percent of the volume exported in 2018/19 respectively. Major export destinations in 2018/2019 included Asia (41.6 percent), Europe (25.4%), and Africa (20.8 percent). The export trend of the country shows that high-value markets are not significantly targeted as exporters target destination countries where import regulations are at ease. This is not always by choice but with the existing functionality of many agricultural value chains exporters that are not producing themselves have no or little control over the quality of the products they export. Buyers that have strict regulations or demand on such parameters are difficult to access. High-value markets, like the EU or Scandinavia, have ...