- Sputnik International, 1920
Africa
Get the latest Africa news from Sputnik: breaking news, photos, videos, analysis, and features.

Ethiopia to Export $200Mln of Wheat to NGOs, UN World Food Programme

© AP Photo / Ben CurtisAn Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of wheat to be allocated to waiting families after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 8, 2021
An Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of wheat to be allocated to waiting families after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 8, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.02.2023
Subscribe
With almost 114 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is Africa's second most populated country. Two years ago, it was not able to meet its domestic wheat demand, according to Trade and Regional Integration Minister Gebremeskel Chala.
Ethiopia is preparing to ink an agreement to supply $200Mln of wheat to non-governmental organizations, according to Ahmed Shide, the country's Minister of Finance. The buyers include the UN World Food Programme, which will acquire the Ethiopian wheat in the first round.

"We have fulfilled what we promised our people and today we have made Ethiopia's wheat export dream a reality," the country's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at the official launch of the export program on Sunday. He added: "It is testimony that we dream big; say what we dream; do what we say, working day and night, and show what we have done after completion."

Ethiopia has already signed a contract to export 300,000 tons of wheat to six countries this year, including Kenya and Sudan.
The start of export is seen by observers as a success of the Home Grown Economic Reform program – updated by the present prime minister in 2019 – in the country, which was dependent on wheat imports as recently as two years ago. Now it is expected that Ethiopia's wheat production will show a surplus of 3.2Mln tons.
In the present fiscal year, the country reportedly plans to develop 1.3Mln hectares of farmland through irrigation and as a result harvest more than 5.2Mln tons of wheat.
The announcements come against the backdrop of a global food crisis, which has had a particularly hard impact on several African countries, which are dependent on food imports.
In recent months, international organizations warned that around 350Mln Africans face food insecurity, with 20Mln children threatened by hunger and thirst in the drought-hit Horn of Africa region.
At a press-conference in Eswatini, during one of his recent African tours, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used UN data to emphasize that despite claims by western media, the global food crisis began before Russia's special military operation. He also noted that Russia makes efforts to tackle the food crisis by participating in the Black Sea grain deal – however, most of the grain exported under the initiative does not reach the poorest states with almost 50 percent going to the EU, Lavrov underlined.
Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала