Ethiopian Review

The Ethiopian Cargo and Airport of Liege, organized a workshop on May 30, 2009, to discuss how the horticulture export products are being transferred from Liege to their final sale destination in Holland.

Being the main destination of the Ethiopian horticultural exports, the second largest flower exporting country in Africa after Kenya, to Europe, Liege Airport has organized the workshop to also inform the public about its daily operation.

Following a dramatic growth in the number of farms over the past four years, the government claims that Liege is an ideal location for highland and lowland world-class flowers due to agro-climatic conditions.

It has markets in Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Norway, Sweden, UK, the US, Middle East, and other EU and Asian countries, according to an information sheet printed by the Ethiopian Investment Agency in 2008.

Horticulture has grown rapidly in Ethiopia and has begun catching up with major export commodities in terms of the volume of foreign currency earnings.

Although the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) planned to collect a little over 92 million dollars from the export of flowers in the first half of 2008-09, only a little over 55.5 million dollars was earned due to the global financial crisis.

- By Hilina Alemu | Addis Fortune