As part of EHPEA’s key intervention areas on advocacy for the development of Ethiopian horticulture investment business climate, farm visit and a discussion platform program held at Bishoftu cluster on Saturday November 27, 2021.

On visit program a higher official delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture State Minister Dr. Sofia Kassa, W/ro Genet Abdela Advisor to Ministry of Agriculture Minister Ato Oumer Husen, and Ato Mekonnen Solomon who is Director of horticulture have joined the visit to 5 EHPEA member farms namely; Friendship Flower PLC, Beti Ornamental Plc., Rainbow Colors Plc., Yassin Legesse Flower Farm and Roshanara Rose Plc.

The delegation discussed at length on the cluster challenges about the delayed inking of the land lease agreements, suspension of investment expansion request, intermittent outage of power and delay in issuance of import permit.

The Oromia Investment and Industry Bureau Head, Dr. Teshome and his team set a direction on the way forward to the Regional Government cabinet to pass decision on the lease amount to expedite the signing of the lease agreement for the 6 farms in Bishoftu, to address expansion requests in the framework of the law & to adjust the lease period to 30 years for those farms with in the rural administration.