Archive for March 2, 2010
Ethiopia gears up to boost tea production
Ethiopian Tea
ADIS ABABA (Commodity Online) : Just day’s after Kenya announced more plans to boost tea output, neighboring Ethiopia said it will also work out strategies to boost its production.
Ethiopia, which shares its southern border with Kenya currently produces about seven million kilogram’s of tea from three privately run estates.
Ethiopia’s production capacity is smaller compared to Kenya but its leaf quality is causing concerns that the country could soon launch a formidable challenge to Kenya’s tea exports, including in the blending segment, analysts said.
Country’s Agriculture and Rural Development ministry projects output could swell substantively in the coming years now that it had identified some 50,000 hectares of land suitable for production of the beverage.
Tea Board of Kenya said, many countries in the region are looking up to expanding their tea industries, but our immediate attention would be on Ethiopia because we share almost similar types of soil and climate and the quality of their tea is largely similar with ours.
While Ethiopia has emerged a success story in coffee business, its tea industry has over the decades faltered largely due to lack of investment and the lengthy periods of time that lapsed before such investors could recoup their money.
The initial investment in tea is huge and most investors get discouraged by the fact that it takes a minimum three years for the bushes to mature before any harvests could be done and leaf sold to realise any returns.
In April last year an Ethiopian firm signed a $300 million joint venture deal with a Dubai-based firm to develop a 5,000 hectare tea plantation in Illubabor area.
According to the pact East Africa Agri-business and Dubai World Trading Company planned to produce close to 423,000kg of black tea by 2012.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in December predicted that the global tea market would witness some shake-up in terms of supply and demand as producing countries rush in to expand areas under the crop in a bid to cash-in on the record high prices witnessed over 2009.
The indicative world price for black tea reached a high of $3.18 a kg in September 2009, compared to an average price of $2.38 per kg in 2008.
The historic rally in global prices of tea was caused by droughts in India, Sri Lanka and Kenya against increased demand for the product.
Source: commodity online
Africa emerge as new Trade partners of Asia
By parvaiz Ishaq Rama
Trade Partners
For the last 60 years, country’s traditional trade partners had been US and Europe but business deals recorded by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan during the Expo have completely changed the demography of country’s trade.
TDAP chief executive Mohibullah Shah talking to Dawn on Monday said that at the conclusion of the mega fair deals worth $80 million were recorded, while others are under way. Some joint ventures and investment avenues are also being explored by the foreign visitors.
Giving some details about the outcome of the expo the TDAP chief said that it was amazing to know that the larger volume of business orders up to 40 per cent were placed by the Asian buyers, followed by Africans at 26 per cent. Export orders placed by the South American buyers stood at around 16 per cent and from US between 5 to 8 per cent.
Mr Shah hoped that since large number of export orders are still in the pipeline the total volume could reach to $130 million compared to $45 million orders recorded in last expo.
The global recession, he said, has shifted markets and with increasing purchasing power Asia has become major market for Pakistani products with countries from the Gulf, the Middle East, China, Iran, Turkey, and South Korea in the lead. Against this Europe has become number two and US the third for Pakistani exports.
There is also a visual shift in demand because engineering goods, surgical instruments, hospital equipment and handicraft are in greater demand from these countries. Egypt and East African countries are showing keen interest in motorcycles, CNG rickshaws and electric fans.
Many foreign delegates have expressed keen interest to invest in sectors like water treatment plants, low-cost housing, wind and solar energy and electric power generation.
However, he said the most fascinating development of the Expo Pakistan was the demand for 10,000 English teachers and 300 professors from Romania. This shows that in service sector Pakistan can also play a major role in many countries.
Ethiopia-Italy trade, investment ties strengthening
investment
Ethiopia-Italy trade, investment ties strengthening Trade and investment relations between Ethiopia and Italy have been strengthening, said a statement issued Friday from the Italian embassy in Addis Ababa. According to the statement, Ethiopia has exported to Italy goods amounting to a total of 33 million U.S. dollars last year. Italy’s export to Ethiopia during the same period amounted to almost 190 million dollars, indicating a huge trade imbalance between the two countries, the statement said. The goods Italy exports to Ethiopia include, among others, spare parts, food stuff, chemicals, materials for leather industry and building materials, while Ethiopia exports to Italy coffee, horticultural products, hides and skins and textiles. The volume of Italian investment to Ethiopia has reached 315 million birr (about 36.29 million U.S. dollars) only during the last fiscal year (July 2004-July 2005). “The historical linkages between the two countries have traditionally facilitated contacts and collaborations between Ethiopian and Italian companies in textile and garments, leather and leather products, and agriculture,” the statement said. The richness of economic relations between Ethiopian and Italian people is also due to the historical presence of about 200 Italian companies operating in Ethiopia in the field of import- export, construction, metal and mechanical industry and leather, the statement said. “Given the encouraging achievements in terms of economic reforms in Ethiopia, and the enhanced bilateral relations nowadays, the economic linkages between the two countries has been further improved not only in the traditional sectors, but also in new fields such as infrastructure, telecommunication technologies and agro-industry,” it said.
Source: Xinhua
