Delays in issuing permits have stalled the expansion
Horticultural farmers in Ethiopia want to expand their farms to remain competitive worldwide, but delays in issuing permits have stalled production. The Ethiopian Horticultural Producers Expoerters Association (EHPEA) has therefore written a letter to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, to look into this problem.
In order to meet the ever increasing market demand, local and foreign investors in Ethiopia are demanding to expand their farms, states EHPEA, but many farms in Oromia National Regional State have already requested to expand a couple of years ago but their requests have not yet been properly addressed.
“Hence, the foreign currency to be generated from the sector and potential job opportunities to be created were not achieved”, writes EHPEA, that also praises the Ethiopian government for its ‘unreserved and consequent efforts’ extended to the horticultural sector’ to make the country an important player in the world.
“Such a development has attracted many buyers and investors to the country creating a favourable image. These investors have capacitated their human resource, improved their quality of produce and became competitive in the world market”, the letter explains.
Meanwhile EHPEA has agreed with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to collaborate on boosting the export of fruits and vegetables. Both parties agreed to capitalise EHPEA members’ export experience and ATA’s accumulated experience in value chain development as a positive combination.
Representatives of ATA in the Household Irrigation Project and Technical Expert in Value Chain Development (horticulture) clarified that their agency has an established program geared towards the development of the horticulture value chain in which key products have already been identified.
From the side of EHPEA it was stressed that some of their commercial member farms have an established market linkage. The current EHPEA project on the Ethio-Dutch Horticulture Development Program is also taken as a vital instrument to increase the export of fruits and vegetables. The agencies further agreed to combine their marketing strategies to identify key areas of development according to market requirements.