Export earnings from the horticulture industry spikes above the projection which it set to attain in the just concluded budget year.
In the 2021/22 budget year, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) had targeted to attain close to USD 590 million from the horticulture export, one of the well performing sectors.
However, the actual performance which was secured from MoA indicated that in the budget year which ended on July 7 saw the sector surpassing expectation and contributing USD 628.5 million, which is 107 percent of the target.
Compared with the 2020/21 budget year, the performance shot up by 18.3 percent. A year ago, the sector contributed hard currency worth USD 531.4 million, which was also a success compared with the preceding period.
Meanwhile in the export commodity lists to which it is relatively new, the horticulture sector has shown steady improvement every year, standing as one of the major hard currency sources from commodity export. For instance, in the budget year that ended July 2021, it stood third after coffee and gold in terms of hard currency earnings.
In composition, by sub sector the floriculture sub sector has continued in leading the hard currency earnings and contributed USD 541.5 million, which is seven percent higher compared with the projection that was USD 508 million.
It has also increased by 15 percent compared with the preceding year.
While the vegetable and fruit subsectors have contributed USD 70 million and USD 17 million with 106 percent and 108 percent achievements of the projection respectively.
Compared with the preceding year, the vegetable subsector revenue has increased by half. Similarly, the revenue of the fruit sub sector, which is stated as a promising export earning commodity, has grown by 29.5 percent compared with the same period of 2020/21 budget year.
Regarding volume, the horticulture sector has expanded by 8.4 percent compared with the preceding budget year, while it attained 92 percent from the target.
Ethiopia is one of the top flower exporters in the world and it has accommodated over 200,000 jobs that is mainly for women.
In the 2021/22 budget year Ethiopia secured USD 4.12 billion from commodity export; of which the agriculture sector took 72 percent followed by mining and industry sectors which contributed 14 and 12 percent respectively.
Compared with the same period of last year, the total commodity export earnings expanded by 13.8 percent.