nazret.com

Another flower firm withers away in Ethiopia

By Muluken Yewondwossen

Source: Capital

The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) has announced the foreclosure of another flower farm.

Site Agro Plc has been closed because of a failure to pay back a DBE loan.
According to the notice posted in the Amharic state-owned daily, Addis Zemen, the estimated value of Site Agro Plc was 3.7 million birr. The farm is located in West Showa Zone, Ajere Woreda, around Addis Alem town, on an area of 13.13 hectares, which is cultivated with various types of flower.

Previously the state-owned bank foreclosed five other flower farms due to failures to keep up with payments. Three of them are in the process of being transferred to other owners by negotiation because an auction did not attract buyers.

Although too late for Site Agro Plc and the others, recently steps have been taken to try and ease the situation for the troubled flower firms. The government suggested a rescheduling of land lease and loan terms and an agreement has recently been reached.
"The international crisis had had a negative impact on us. Considering this, rescheduling of the loan payment duration is a welcome move by the government. It is encouraging," Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA), President Tsegaye Abebe recently told Capital.

DBE has established a Flower Administration Committee to manage flower farms until they are transferred to other private companies.

Ethiopia has emerged as one of the biggest flower and other horticulture producer in the continent over the last few years and the export of the product has become one of the major foreign currency generators for the country.

Currently EHPEA has 90 members. Members are required to be registered and licensed and actively engaged as producers or exporters of horticultural products (flowers and other ornamental plants, fruits, vegetable, and herbs,) in Ethiopia.

Over the last eight months of the last budget year, the country earned over 100 million dollars from the sector's exports.

From the total 2,800 hectare of land covered by flower and horticulture, 1,200 hectares is allotted to flower cultivation. Most of the sector's developed land is in Oromia within a 200km radius of Addis Ababa.

According to a report last year from the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency, the country secured 151 million dollars from flower and horticulture products exports in the last full budget year, an increase of 26 million dollars from the preceding year.

Ethiopia expects to earn $250 mil from flower export

By Dawit Taye

Reporter

The price of flowers, which until last month had been on the low, has as of the last two weeks shown a 30 percent increase, creating better opportunities for Ethiopian flower exporters.

According to Tsegaye Abebe, chairperson of the Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association, for months, depending on the type of flowers, prices remained at .08 to .20 euros. In recent weeks, however, that has increased to .20 to .30 euros.

One of the reasons for the increase in price, according to Tsegaye, is attributed to the decline in flower exports by Kenya. Kenya is the leading flower exporting African country. Its flower production was affected by untimely rains of the past three weeks.

Kenya earns over 300 million USD annually from flower exports.

Upcoming holidays such as Valentines Day, Mothers Day, and Women's Day have also contributed to the increase in flower prices, according to Tsegaye, who says he expects prices to remain high in the coming months.

The cold and snowy weather which prevailed in most flower importing countries in the past months was a major factor for the decline in flower prices.

The Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association expects export volume to be as much as 250 million USD this budget year. Over 83 million USD has already been secured in the first six months of this budget year.

Development Bank of Ethiopia may ease debts for flower farms

By Yohannes Anberbir

Authorities at the state-owned Development Bank of Ethiopia have begun contemplating rescheduling the debt repayment period of flower farms based on the farms' current performance.

The current new thinking of the authorities is an outcome of DBE's credit team's assessment of the flower farms, a top official of the bank told Capital.
The credit team authorised by the bank to investigate the challenges of the flower sector came up with results that identified quality problems with the flower farms, a lack of managerial supervision and other factors that resulted in poor market performance.
The team also criticised the bank's credit requirement for this specific sector and recommended a way out from the crisis.


Read Full Story from Capital ...

Ethiopia - Starlight flower farm goes bust

By Yohannes Anberbir

Ethiopia's Starlight Roses Flower Farm was the last surviving subsidiary of the troubled Star Business Group, set up by three Addis businessmen. Despite its resilience, it has not been able to survive the financial collapse of the parent company and is now set to close.
Worku Megra, general manager of the flower firm, is currently negotiating to return the 36 hectares flower farm to Sher Ethiopia. In the same week the Federal High Court authorized the liquidation of Ethio Investment Group(EIG) another of Star’s debt ridden subsidiaries.
Menwyelet Atenafu, Abebaw Desta and Worku Megra, business partners and shareholders of Star Business Group, Ethio Investment Group and many other well-known companies, established Starlight Roses Flower Farm two years ago.

Like other flower exporters, Starlight also leased four green houses from Sher Ethiopia Plc, a flower grower and green house company based in Zeway town in the Oromia Regional State, 165km south of Addis.

Starlight had been exporting flower stems collected from the 36 hectares farm for the last two years, paying 0.51 euro per square meter for the green houses each week.


Read Complete Report from Capital

Ethiopia Secures 138 million dollars from cut flowers

Source: ENA

Ethiopia secured 138 million US dollars from the export of cut flowers during the just ended fiscal year.

Flower and Horticultural Products Association President Tsegaye Abebe told ENA on Tuesday that the stated sum was obtained from the export of two billion cut flowers.

Tsegaye said in spite of the current global economic slowdown, the amount gained from the sector has increased,

The sum secured during the reported period exceeds that of last year by 20 per cent, he said.

Cut flowers, which used to be exported to the Netherlands and Germany alone before last year, have been exported to Britain, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Rusia and South Africa last year

Only half of 3,000 hectares of land provided flower cultivation has been developed so far.