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Country
targets $2.5 bln of exports
in 2008/09 |
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ADDIS
ABEBA(August 20,2008) -
Ethiopia plans to increase export earnings by a billion dollars to
$2.5 billion in 2008/09 compared with the previous year, the trade
ministry said on Tuesday.
"Ethiopia plans to raise 68 percent of the planned $2.5 billion
export earnings from agricultural commodities such as coffee, oil
seeds, spices, leather goods and flowers in 2008/09," the ministry
said in a statement.
Industrial exports are expected to be 32 percent of the total, with
income from textile products set at $49 million from $14.6 million
in 2007/08. Country's financial year runs from July to June.
Income from leather products is targeted at $146 million from $92
million previously. China's Sino-Overseas Leather Products intends
to build four factories to make finished leather goods.
Ethiopia's import bill was $4.7 billion in 2007/08. In the year before
that, the country earned $1.2 billion from exports but paid $3.9 billion
for imports ranging from industrial machines to oil.
"Imbalance between domestic demand and supply as well as the
global rise in oil and other commodity prices has made the trade deficit
to balloon to an estimated $4.7 billion," said Ken Ohashi, World
Bank country director for Ethiopia.
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