Ethiopia to launch commodities exchange

14 April, 2008

DDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A new commodities exchange will open in Ethiopia on Tuesday that its backers hope will improve relations between producers and buyers of crops including coffee, wheat, maize and sesame.

"The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) will revolutionise Ethiopia's traditional mode of trading by creating a new marketplace that serves all market actors including farmers, traders, exporters and consumers," ECX said in a statement.

The exchange will combine a physical trading floor with an electronic trading platform based in the capital Addis Ababa.

It has set up warehouse facilities in the city and in several smaller towns where produce will be weighed, sampled and issued with certificates, the statement said.

Ethiopia expects to export 220,000 tonnes of coffee worth $500 million in the current 2007/08 season. It expects overall production to rise to 370,000 tonnes in 2007/08 from 330,000 tonnes in the previous season, according to the agriculture ministry.