Chinese market 'untapped' for Ethiopian products

The growing demand for Ethiopia’s major export commodities in China has presented a huge potential for Ethiopian producers and exports, Ethiopian officials said on Tuesday.

Assefa Mulugeta, Director General of Export promotion Department at the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the Chinese market, which is one of the top importers of Ethiopian products, is still untapped with huge market potentials for Ethiopia’s export commodities.

“There is a huge potential to expand our market to China,” Mulugeta told Xinhua. For example, China is an emerging country for coffee, said Mulugeta, adding that the Ethiopian government together with Ethiopian business community are looking for opportunities on how to penetrate in the vast Chinese market for Ethiopia’s major export products.

China has been a major destination of Ethiopia’s sesame export in the past decade, as about 70 percent of its total sesame export is going to China, according to figures from the Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors-Exporters Association.

According to Mulugeta, the Ethiopian government over the past years has been putting efforts towards penetrating the Chinese market, mainly through bilateral as well as regional and international events that were held in China as well as at home.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry, in a bid to create market linkage and look for opportunities that are available in China, also took part at the first China International Import Expo that was held in Shanghai earlier this month.

Ethiopia, during the 2017-2018 fiscal year, has already exported goods worth about US$245 million to China, according to data from the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry.