Ethiopia’s horticulture sub-sector is set for significant growth following the launch of the COMESA-EAC Horticulture Accelerator (CEHA) National Chapter. This initiative, unveiled in Addis Ababa on August 13, 2024, is part of a broader strategy to tap into the vast potential of the horticulture industry across the region.
At the launch event, industry stakeholders praised the efforts of the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA-COMESA) and its partners. The CEHA program aims to drive sustainable growth in the horticulture sector across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).
H.E. Dr. Meles Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Agriculture and Horticulture Development, highlighted the importance of the CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter in coordinating and accelerating the country’s horticulture development. The initiative will focus on three key crops—potatoes, avocados, and onions—chosen for their potential to drive economic growth and align with development partners’ investment priorities.
“These crops have been selected based on their production capacity, significant potential to drive economic growth, and development partners’ investment priorities,” said Dr. Mekonnen, represented at the event by his Advisor, Prof. Ali Mohamad.
The CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter is expected to unite key stakeholders and provide vital support to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within the selected value chains through matching grants and technical assistance. This approach is anticipated to create jobs, boost regional trade, and reduce postharvest losses, according to industry experts.
ACTESA-COMESA Chief Executive Officer Dr. John Mukuka underscored the initiative’s potential impact. He revealed that under the 2021-2031 Strategic Plan, ACTESA-COMESA is committed to strengthening the horticulture sub-sector. Dr. Mukuka projected that the combined value of avocados, Irish potatoes, and onions could generate an additional USD 230 million annually for approximately 450,000 smallholder farmers in the region.
In 2023, avocados and onions collectively contributed USD 11.2 million in foreign exchange earnings for the region.
“There is significant headroom for growth and job creation through investments and modernisation in these value chains,” Dr. Mukuka remarked. He also emphasized the pivotal role of women in the horticulture value chain and the need to embrace climate-smart technologies.
The implementation of the CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter will involve a series of targeted activities, including advocacy for policy reforms to enhance trade facilitation and market access, provision of financial resources, training, and capacity-building programs for value chain actors, and sector coordination.
Development partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FDCO), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA), participated in the event and pledged their support to ensure the program’s success.
BMGF Senior Programmes Officer Mr. Rafael Flor highlighted the horticulture sub-sector’s potential for job creation, economic development, and foreign exchange earnings. He noted that focusing on these three crops would help the government diversify beyond its traditional emphasis on grains.
FDCO Country Representative Ms. Nina Hissen affirmed the British government’s commitment to fostering partnerships for growth and creating a world free of poverty. She praised CEHA as a prime example of such a partnership.
AGRA Country Director Dr. Yihenew Zewdie called for the harmonization of policies to facilitate cross-border trade within the horticulture sub-sector. He urged stakeholders to ensure the availability of necessary seeds in the right quantities and sustainable manner, expressing confidence that the CEHA initiative would spur innovation.
Established in 2022, CEHA is a collaborative effort to accelerate growth in the fruit and vegetable sub-sector. Ethiopia is the fourth country to launch the CEHA National Chapter, following Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Ethiopia’s horticulture sub-sector is set for significant growth following the launch of the COMESA-EAC Horticulture Accelerator (CEHA) National Chapter. This initiative, unveiled in Addis Ababa on August 13, 2024, is part of a broader strategy to tap into the vast potential of the horticulture industry across the region.
At the launch event, industry stakeholders praised the efforts of the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA-COMESA) and its partners. The CEHA program aims to drive sustainable growth in the horticulture sector across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).
H.E. Dr. Meles Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Agriculture and Horticulture Development, highlighted the importance of the CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter in coordinating and accelerating the country’s horticulture development. The initiative will focus on three key crops—potatoes, avocados, and onions—chosen for their potential to drive economic growth and align with development partners’ investment priorities.
“These crops have been selected based on their production capacity, significant potential to drive economic growth, and development partners’ investment priorities,” said Dr. Mekonnen, represented at the event by his Advisor, Prof. Ali Mohamad.
The CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter is expected to unite key stakeholders and provide vital support to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within the selected value chains through matching grants and technical assistance. This approach is anticipated to create jobs, boost regional trade, and reduce postharvest losses, according to industry experts.
ACTESA-COMESA Chief Executive Officer Dr. John Mukuka underscored the initiative’s potential impact. He revealed that under the 2021-2031 Strategic Plan, ACTESA-COMESA is committed to strengthening the horticulture sub-sector. Dr. Mukuka projected that the combined value of avocados, Irish potatoes, and onions could generate an additional USD 230 million annually for approximately 450,000 smallholder farmers in the region.
In 2023, avocados and onions collectively contributed USD 11.2 million in foreign exchange earnings for the region.
“There is significant headroom for growth and job creation through investments and modernisation in these value chains,” Dr. Mukuka remarked. He also emphasized the pivotal role of women in the horticulture value chain and the need to embrace climate-smart technologies.
The implementation of the CEHA Ethiopia National Chapter will involve a series of targeted activities, including advocacy for policy reforms to enhance trade facilitation and market access, provision of financial resources, training, and capacity-building programs for value chain actors, and sector coordination.
Development partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FDCO), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA), participated in the event and pledged their support to ensure the program’s success.
BMGF Senior Programmes Officer Mr. Rafael Flor highlighted the horticulture sub-sector’s potential for job creation, economic development, and foreign exchange earnings. He noted that focusing on these three crops would help the government diversify beyond its traditional emphasis on grains.
FDCO Country Representative Ms. Nina Hissen affirmed the British government’s commitment to fostering partnerships for growth and creating a world free of poverty. She praised CEHA as a prime example of such a partnership.
AGRA Country Director Dr. Yihenew Zewdie called for the harmonization of policies to facilitate cross-border trade within the horticulture sub-sector. He urged stakeholders to ensure the availability of necessary seeds in the right quantities and sustainable manner, expressing confidence that the CEHA initiative would spur innovation.
Established in 2022, CEHA is a collaborative effort to accelerate growth in the fruit and vegetable sub-sector. Ethiopia is the fourth country to launch the CEHA National Chapter, following Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Kenya is among five countries in the region that have the backing of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to cut post-harvest losses in the horticulture sector.
This is under the COMESA- EAC Horticultural Accelerator (CEHA) programme targets to improve production and distribution, access to quality seeds, training, establish standards and traceability, and strengthen post-harvest management while improving gains in the value chain.
While overall post-harvest losses in Kenya’s agriculture sector are estimated at between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, the horticulture sub-sector records losses of up to 60 per cent, according to the regional body.
The five-year programme targeted at Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia is keen to cut the losses in horticulture to 40 per cent, or lower.
COMESA Assistant Secretary General (Programmes) Mohamed Kadah said CEHA has a bottom-up structure where strategic priorities are identified by national-level stakeholders, mainly the horticulture private sector, to drive the priorities at a regional level.
“It facilitates the modernisation of regional horticulture value chains across East Africa, leveraging the comparative advantage, infrastructure, and technology in each country,” Kadah said.
It targets potatoes, avocados and onion farming with Kenya being the first country COMESA has launched the drive, with a goal of achieving a trade value of $25 million (Sh3.3 billion) for fruits and vegetables within the Comesa-EAC region by 2031.
Estimates indicate avocados; onions and Irish potatoes can generate a combined $230 million (Sh29.9 billion) annually for approximately 450,000 smallholder farmers of a minimum farm size of 0.4 hectare with 60 avocado trees, or 1 hectare for onion farmers.
The COMESA initiative aims to propel global exports from $416 million (Sh54.1 billion) to an impressive $ 950 million (Sh123.5 billion) over the next seven years.
“We need to address elements of post-harvest losses through technologies that are there. Be it storage, transport and other stages to ensure that we curb losses and gain more,” said Apollo Owuor, CEHA regional coordinator, Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA).
The region also needs to bring onions and potatoes on board traceability, which is a key component in the market, he added.
“We have a huge opportunity to tap a bigger market locally, regionally and globally but we need to improve production for example potatoes by 20 per cent annually, and onions production,” Owuor said during the launch of the CEHA programme in Nairobi.
According to Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), the country produces a paltry 26 per cent of the onions consumed in the market, with 74 per cent of imported mainly from Tanzania.
The little that is locally produced is also of low quality according to the authority, amid post-harvest losses, poor management and storage, low quality seeds and onion diseases.
The country on the other hand export 80 per cent of avocado produces to the global market, thanks to improved quality and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, one of the key factors dictating safety considerations and market access for agricultural commodities.
The government is also keen to enhance traceability in Irish potatoes with plans to expand production to 26 counties from the current 13, a move that is expected to help cut imports where 50 per cent of potatoes in the processing sector are imported.
“We are addressing conformity of these commodities, improving quality if seeds and expanding export markets and linkages,” Deputy Director Technical Advisory Services at AFA, Anthony Rutto, said.
The government targets to grow agricultural exports as part of plans to increase foreign exchange earnings and cut the country’s import bill, according to Trade PS Alfred K’Ombudo.
They account for 35 per cent of the country’s total exports led by tea, coffee, avocados, and cut flowers among others.
Ethiopia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding today in the presence of stakeholders to cooperate with the East and Southern African Market Coordinating Agency (COMESA) in avocado, red onion and potato products.