Author: technobros_admin

As part of sustainable horticulture export business development, Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) in collaboration with the German Embassy in Addis Ababa organized a briefing session on the due diligence of compliance requirements to penetrate Germany export market.

The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA) comes into force on 1 January 2023 and the law applies to organizations in Germany with more than 3,000 employees. From 2024 onwards, organizations with more than 1,000 employees will need to comply with the SCDDA.

In 2016, the German government launched its National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights finding only one-fifth of organizations with more than 500 employees met human rights due diligence obligations.

The SCDDA is intended to raise those numbers and prevent human and environmental rights violations. There is an extraterritorial aspect of the law that accounts for infringements in the domestic and international markets.

On the briefing session Mrs. Susanne Duiring, the counsellor for social affairs in German Embassy Addis Ababa, presented the new regulation of Germany in the global value chain in-line with the horticulture produce.

The obligatory core elements in the establishment of a risk management system to identify, prevent, and minimize the risks of human rights violations and damage to the environment discussed at length with the farm representatives and the way forward to document and provide evidence of measures and processes to avoid sanctions.

The participants stated that most of EHPEA member farms fulfill the standards as they have been working the past two decades on the export business, where the association also support on the capacity building of members having its own standards and certifications.

The Association Executive director Mr. Tewodros Zewdie stated that, as Germany is one of the main horticulture product export destinations for Ethiopia, it will continue its relentless effort to elevate the capacity of members to comply with the international standards.

In its relentless endeavor to elevate the technical capacity of avocado farms, cooperatives, unions and regional public sector agricultural experts and extension workers, EHPEA trained more than 800 farm agronomists, production managers, post harvest experts and extension workers on “Post Harvest Handling of Avocado.”

The trainees were drawn from Sidama and South Ethiopia Regional States.

Capacity building is an important element to have transformation in the avocado value chain.

It is worth to pay credit for the contribution of MASHAV project in introducing and availing planting material for Ethiopia’s avocado production and global market integration. Now, we need to scale up the best and sustainable practices.

THE FUTURE IS HORTICULTURE for Ethiopia.

The Minister of Agriculture awards EHPEA for its outstanding contribution of ensuring the competitiveness of Ethiopian Horticulture export.

A discussion platform with a theme ‘Making a Difference Through Horticulture Investment’, held at Capital hotel today by the lead of H.E Dr. Girma Amente, Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and in collaboration with Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporter Association (EHPEA).

On the meeting the Ministry announced the sector export performance as the second top hard currency earner to the country next to coffee, amounting 658.31million USD on the last fiscal year with market destination mainly to the Netherlands, Saudi Arabiya, UK, UAE, Japan, Djibouti, Somalia, Nigeria, and other emerging destinations to Africa.

The meeting was a great platform which involved major players of the sector from Federal level, regional and private sectors to discuss at length on the strength and challenges encountered.

The discussion gave an insight to prioritize on the future strategic intervention areas to build the Ethiopian horticulture brand globally. It was also stated that the Ministry has set this year’s export target to 741 million USD anticipating the current challenges of the sector will be resolved on the budget year.

At the end of the meeting the Ministry gave recognition award for partner organizations, farms who scored higher export performance, implementation of good agricultural practice, corporate social responsibility and up to date new technology introduction to the sector.

Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Association Executive Director Tewodros Zewdie said that the association has been undertaking evidence-based policy advocacy interventions to create a better business environment for the sector operators.

In doing so, various amendments are undertaken towards revising policies, proclamations, directives, regulations among others, he remarked.

So far, the association managed to offer training exceeding 10,000 workforces of the industry on a wide spectrum of issues including compliance, crop specific topics, biological control of pest, integrated pest management, solid and liquid waste management aimed at elevating and building the capacity of the horticulture sector operators, Tewodros stated.

Mentioning the presence of potential partners globally, he said the association has been linking Ethiopian based growers with international buyers through business-to-business schemes thereby executing ranges of sales agreements with buyers in Europe, Middle East, Far East, North America and other destinations.

Furthermore, HortiFlora Expo, which brings wide segments of Horticulture supply chain actors under one roof, has brought lots of buyers from Europe, Middle East, Far East, US and Canada as well as African Countries. Besides, it has given additional impetus to members to broaden its market destination.

 Having said the sector is the second largest in terms of boosting forex to the country and the opportunities in the global market, he added that the industry kept on bringing more than half a billion USD every year.

He stated that the cost of doing business in the horticulture sector is getting expensive in many countries, and hence it is becoming a windfall opportunity for Ethiopia to lure more investment.

He said: “Ethiopia is one of the top five producer and exporter countries in the cut flowers globally following Columbia, Ecuador, the Netherlands and Kenya, however a lot remains to be done in fruit and vegetable. Also, Rwanda and Uganda are also on the pipeline to create favorable conditions for investors.

“We have been engaging in various tasks such as carbon and water footprint reduction, expanding investment lands of the horticulture farms to create a better enabling environment for members in the sector,” he remarked.

He also called on the government and other stakeholders to ensure sustainable peace and put consolidated efforts to unleash the potential of the country to help attract more investors in the sector.

BY ASHENAFI ANIMUT

THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 15 OCTOBER 2023

After intensive negotiations trade unions and cutting farms in Koka Cluster inked agreement for annual salary increment.

The negotiation was conducted with the facilitation of Executive Director of Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association(EHPEA) and President of the National Federation of Trade Unions of Agriculture, Fishery and Agro Processing.

The introduction of cluster based wage scheme negotiations between Trade Unions of Farms and Management of farms has substantially improved the wage levels and also resulted in better industrial harmony.

EHPEA extends its services to its member farms to be environment conscious by introducing waste management systems!

→ Construction of Wetlands; Built 40+ used water treatment plants constructed, which benefits on reducing water footprints, ensure sustainability, avoid environmental risks and created the professionals on the field.

Up to date EHPEA member farms managed to treat and recycle 83thousand cubic meter water and save 45% of water consumption in their farm.

To support the sector sustainability a national standard for the horticulture sector formulated which eases the regulation task and ensure sustainability in coordination with Ethiopian Standard Authority.

→ Green Waste Management; we also provide services that pivot on ensuring sustainability regarding converting biomass into valuable products through adopting value-adding technologies.

Accordingly, different technologies are adopted to produce organic fertilizer and renewable energy from green waste. Composting, vermicomposting, biogas, and briquette are the technologies implemented at member farms.

Through Vermi composting technology it was possible to reduce the application of synthetic fertilizer by 33% and with small biogas digester (20metric cube) farms are able to produce organic liquid fertilizer (3000litter) per week from the green waste.