Ministry of Agriculture and EHPEA hosted a public-private dialogue webinar on ‘Attracting investment to the horticulture sector in Ethiopia’ today June 11, 2020. The webinar was a great platform to present the horticulture sector-major bottlenecks and the way forward discussed at length. On the opening of the webinar dialogue H.E Ato Umer Husen Minister, Ministry of Agriculture stated that the horticulture sector is the country’s major foreign currency contributor next to coffee with a promising potential to solve food inflation in the near future. He also added that the Ministry will continue on creating such kind of platform to solve the challenges of the sector by working closely with the sector players.
The Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association, Executive Director Ato Tewodros Zewdi, briefly articulated the main challenges of the sector such as; to identify horticulture cluster for new investment and expansion, design a horticulture policy, the betterment of electric power and internet infrastructure, investment incentives for input suppliers and propagators, out-grower scheme and cool chain management system which needs a quick action to support the investment.
Pertinent government officials, H.E Ato Wondale Habtamu state Minister of MoA, Ato. Hailu Jelde Commissioner, Oromia Investment Commission, Dr. Getahum mekonnen D/bureau head of Amhara Industry, and investment bureau expressed their readiness to support the sector. The webinar concluded by taking assignments to address the mentioned challenges and potential to the responsible government institutions.
Company representatives from the existing horticulture producer and exporters participated on the webinar.
