A high-level consultative meeting was convened today on the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), deliberating on ways of increasing the performance of the country’s horticultural subsector.

Presided over by H.E. Dr. Sofia Kassa, State Minister of Agriculture, the meeting dwelt upon the achievements on the subsector performance and important issues already addressed and also the way forward to augment horticultural productivity and forex generation among other social and economic gains.

As a follow-up on a series engagement, the consultative meeting featured two presentations: the 2025/2026 Horticulture Subsector Performance and the Plan for the 2026/2027 budget year by Dr. Dereje Abebe, Lead Executive Officer of Agricultural Investment and Product Marketing at MoA; and recent achievements on important issues of the subsector and the way forward by Tewodros Zewdie, Executive Director of the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA).

Stating that several measures have been taken with tangible results in important areas, the State Minister has reiterated her Ministry’s committed support to the horticulture subsector, paving ways and facilitating conducive environment for the private sector, and thereby collaboratively driving the growth of the industry.

Speaking during the discussion, Nega Mequanint, EHPEA Board Chair, commended the Ministry for its continued support in addressing spectrum of issues that are critical to the smooth business operation of the EHPEA Member Farms.

Hailing the role of the consultative meeting in identifying and discussing critical areas that require combined engagement, the Board Chair also underlined the need to employ committed joint efforts of all stakeholders to build on the achievements and address other issues towards realizing the expected gains out of the subsector.

Meeting participants brought up variety of pertinent issues and discussed them at length.