Foreign Companies Desirous of Increasing Imports of Pulses, Oilseeds from Ethiopia

Addis Ababa,November 25/2023(ENA)-Lured to Ethiopia’s big potential of pulses and oilseeds, foreign companies said that they have big interest to increase their imports of pulses and oilseeds and expand the sector. 

Senior Trader at UK based TORQ Commodities Ltd, Anna Maria, who participated the 12th International Conference on Pulses and Oilseeds recently held in Addis Ababa told ENA that her company is mainly importing agricultural products, especially sesame soybean from East Africa. 

 

She added that Ethiopia is definitely a very important supplier of sesame and soyabean and pulses no less than coffee. 

“Definitely Ethiopia is one of the biggest producers particularly sesame ... just purely for export. For sure, Ethiopia is a very important supplier of this product.”

She explained that she has been importing from Ethiopia for many years, of course the last few years has not been not easy; but “we are hoping this season we can restart again... in a big way.”

Managing Director at Dhamia Trading Company, based in Karachi, Pakistan, Muhammad Farad on his part said we are importing multiple pulses and oilseeds mostly from Ethiopia and from the east Africa region, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

 

“It is a big potential and yearly we are importing more than thousands of tons from Ethiopia and here is a perfect quality, supply is perfect and everything is good. Here is a good opportunity and we are also planning to open the company here in the future,” he said.

If the government supports us, he said, “we will move to here and we will open the company to export from here to the global world.”

Director at Global Pulses Confederation (GPC), Rao Ali Akbar, on his part said we have members from all over the world, embracing more than 500 companies as members. 

 

The GPC is based in Dubai and licensed by the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC) and it represents all segments of the pulse industry value chain from growers, researchers, logistics suppliers, traders, exporters and importers as well as government bodies, multilateral organizations, processors, canners and consumers. 

He said he was here to recruit more members for the association so that they could get sustainable growth from the platform we are providing.

He noted that the platform provides database about the demand and supply of the crops and also about the pulses industry, based which they can take decisions and can grow their business.

“We are here to recruit more members from this industry specially from Ethiopia. I would say a lot of potential members are here and it will definitely improve the Ethiopian market in reaching the right audience,” he added. 

The pulse industry is doing a brilliant job in terms of export and helping the economy of Ethiopia, he said.

Account Manager of Chinese Company, FAMSUN Integrated Solution Provider, Walton on his part said his company is a leading global machinery manufacturer and project service provider in the whole supply chain of agro-business.

 

”We want to broaden our market in Ethiopia because we set Ethiopia as a point country. Because we think there are a big potential in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has brought a big change, ” he said. 

The government of Ethiopia has devised a strategic plan to accelerate the growth of export levels of  pulses and oilseeds over the next 10 years.The country's income records reveal that the trade of pulses and oilseeds ranks second in agricultural export earnings, right after coffee.