Dire Dawa Food Complex and Kaliti Food SC bought 20,000ql of durum wheat, worth 19 million Br, from the seven farmers’ cooperatives in Oromia Region on Friday, March 1, 2013.
The wheat has been grown as part of the ‘Agricultural Value Chains in Oromia’ project, under the Ethio-Italian Development Cooperation, which focuses on durum wheat and wild coffee developments in Oromia. The farmers have retained 3,000ql for the next farming season.
Agarfa, Ginir, Sinana and Dello Mena farmers’ cooperative unions, all in Bale zone, produced the wheat, which has now been sold to the factories, in 2011/12. The previous year they produced 7,500ql, using 46ql of seed provided by the project; 4,600ql was sold to Dire Dawa Food Complex.
The project, which has a four year life span, is supported by 1.7 million Br financing from the Italian government, with an emphasis on rigorously marketing the farmers’ produce.
Dire Dawa Food Complex has bought 12,300ql, with the rest going to Kaliti Foods.
“Since we import more durum wheat for our production, we have paid according to the current export price,” Nigatu Yohannes, procurement & property administration head of Akaki Foods, told Fortune.
Kaliti Food Complex consumes 200,000tn of wheat a year, in the production of foods it produces.
“The current sale confirms that the project is able to connect local farmers with the private sector and strengthen their links,” said Lucia de Troia, representative of the Italian Development Cooperation.
Dire Dawa Food Complex, which produces; biscuits, bread, pasta and macaroni, consumes 600,000tn of wheat; three-quarters of which is imported.
Durum wheat has been cultivated inEthiopiafor many years, though it is gradually being replaced by bread wheat, says Genene Gezu, regional consultant for the project.
“Demand for spaghetti and macaroni is growing faster than for any other food item, so ever-increasing amounts of durum wheat grain are required,” said Genene.
Due to a low volume and poor quality of national wheat production, Ethiopian pasta industries are obliged to import the required raw materials – mainly hard wheat.
“At present we cannot import the raw materials for hard currency reasons, and soEthiopiais experiencing huge imports of packed pasta,” says the chief executive officer (CEO) of a food company, who asked to remain anonymous.
Local factories could not even find 100,000tn of durum wheat in the local market, according to the CEO.
Wheat is cultivated on approximately 120,000ha of land, in the Bale Zone, and about 150,000ha in the neighbouring Arsi Zone. The national average yield is 1.8tn a hectare.
“The project is showing that the on-going importation of hundreds of thousands of quintals of hard wheat from abroad should be substituted by national products,” said de Troia.
The project plans to produce 60,000ql of durum wheat in the coming farming season. In the 2012 fiscal year,Ethiopia imported 472,147tn of durum wheat, at a cost of 174.6 million dollars.
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