Interview: CIIE offers wider market access to Ethiopia's top agricultural export commodities

ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) presents huge opportunities for Ethiopia's top agricultural export commodities toward penetrating wider market access, an Ethiopian agricultural products exporter has said.

Sisay Asmare, general manager of RIB Industrial and Commercial Private Limited Company (PLC), who is also the president of Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors-Exporters Association (EPOSPEA), said the CIIE serves as an efficient platform to meet and forge a business partnership with potential Chinese customers.

RIB Industrial and Commercial PLC has been actively engaged in exporting agricultural commodities such as sesame seed, pulses, spices and other varieties of beans and oilseeds since 2003, in which China is one of its major export market destinations.

Recalling two-time successful participation at the CIIE before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Asmare said the platform serves as a hotspot avenue for Ethiopian and other foreign exporters to explore and penetrate the vast Chinese market.

The 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) is scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai. The event provides a platform for companies from around the world to display their products, promote their brands, and find more business partners in the world's second-largest economy.

"We have participated at the CIIE two times, in 2018 and 2019, but since then due to the coronavirus pandemic, we did not participate. For this year, we are also invited to attend," Asmare said.

"We are happy because it was a very big event. The Chinese also gave us, for Ethiopia, one pavilion," he said, adding that the Ethiopian pavilion at the CIIE had "attracted so many excited visitors."

According to Asmare, the secret to a successful participation at the platform lies in effectively evaluating the market demand, assessing potential customers, and forging business partnerships.

"When I go there, for one, I maintain my relationship with existing customers. I visit them and learn how they are going to apply the import from us and how they process it so that I will take care of my products as per their demands. Secondly, new customers will also come," he said.

Asmare said the platform helps to "maintain relationships, get new customers, and understand your customers' needs a face-to-face business relationship that helps me to understand the (business more)."

He said the previous CIIE editions have successfully injected important impetus in terms of creating awareness about Ethiopia's major export commodities.

"They (the organizers) are very good. Our products are popular as people really like Ethiopian products and it is a growing situation," he said.

Asmare said the CIIE is a conducive platform to expedite demand and accessibility of Ethiopia's export-oriented agricultural commodities to the wider Chinese and global market, eventually enabling the East African country to tap into its competitive advantage in the global agricultural products market.

"We can supply sesame seed, oilseeds like peanuts, sunflower seed, rapeseed; we also have coffee; and these are becoming popular in the Chinese market. In the near future, our products will compete more as the demand will also come from China," Asmare said.

Noting the existing one-time production of Ethiopia's agricultural export commodities, which often affects business relations with foreign importers due to supply interruptions as exporters usually wait until the next production season ahead of export, Asmare said the CIIE offers constant opportunities to regularly meet new customers.

Asmare, in particular, underscored the need to utilize the CIIE as a gateway to the ever-expanding Chinese market, with due emphasis given to the growing demand for Ethiopia's agricultural export commodities among the Chinese customer base.

"The Chinese market is the biggest in the world. (It) is a blessing for Ethiopians and Africans," he said.

He further underscored the two-way benefit presented by the wider Chinese market. "We can benefit by supplying them agricultural commodities, industrial raw materials and we can also buy from them agro-processing factory machinery, construction machinery and other development equipment."

As Ethiopia's overall exports to China grows exponentially in recent years, figures from EPOSPEA show that China has been a major destination for Ethiopia's sesame seed in the past decade, as about 60 to 70 percent of the country's total sesame export goes to China.

Between 2018 to 2021, China imported close to 282,554 metric tons of Ethiopia's sesame seed, making it the largest importer of the commodity, according to figures from EPOSPEA.

Sesame, along with coffee, is one of Ethiopia's top export commodities, as the country's export sector is largely dominated by the export of agricultural products.

During the Ethiopian 2021/2022 fiscal year, which ended on July 7, 2022, the country generated 4.12 billion U.S. dollars in export revenue, of which the agriculture sector contributed the highest share, constituting 72 percent of the total export revenue, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration.

Courtesy of the booming Sino-Ethiopia trade and investment cooperation coupled with important platforms such as the CIIE, Ethiopia's overall export to China has registered steady growth in recent years as China remains Ethiopia's biggest trading partner.

Ethiopia's exports to China increased by 8 percent in 2021 as compared with the previous year, while new foreign direct investment (FDI) from Chinese companies to Ethiopia grew by 346 percent, according to figures from the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia.