Ethiopia garners some 600 mln dollars through preferential export policies

Ethiopia said Friday it secured 598 million U.S. dollars of revenue from exports to Europe, the United States and China through tariff and quota-free export opportunities during the just ended fiscal year, from July 8, 2005 to July 7, 2006.

Tekle Gebrehiwot, a senior expert with the Ethiopian Customs Authority, told journalists that the country exported huge amount of coffee, flower, oil seeds and other agricultural products to the various countries through the African Growth Opportunity Act ( AGOA) of the United States, Europe's Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative and China's tariff and quota-free export opportunities.

According to the expert, Ethiopia obtained over 402 million dollars from shipment of coffee, over 142 million dollars from sesame and 51 million dollars from the export of leather and leather products during the reported time.

Especially, he said the country gained 150 million dollars from the export of agricultural products to China during the just-ended fiscal year through the tariff and quota-free export opportunity.

The volume and the subsequent revenue generated from export items have been steadily increasing, Tekle said, adding that the country secured over 274,000 dollars from the shipment of strawberry alone.

The export sector constituted 13 to 15 percent of the national economy over the last three years owing to the tariff and quota- free export opportunities, he said.

Source: Xinhua