Note from Wondwossen:
Ethiopia's government's lack of
decency has reached a new low, thanks to the rulers' addiction to food aid. The
government and ECX have now shamelessly resorted to monetizing the food aid that
was meant for the destitute and hunger-stricken millions of Ethiopians.
The government and ECX are in
discussion "to sell surplus food aid to improve the country's electricity
supply." In other words, they want to snatch the food aid from the dying
souls to fund electricity projects, such as the one that they call the "Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam"
project. This is shameful, outrageous, and immoral.
First, it is a hoax to state that there is surplus food aid
in Ethiopia while more than 15 million people are starving and millions more
are barely making ends meet. If there is demand for the food aid that the
government is going to sell, then what we have there is scarcity, not
surplus. On the flip side, if there is surplus, then the government should
either not accept any more of aid or deplete its stock by distributing it to
the needy. It is shameful to beg the world in the name of Ethiopians and make money off of it.
Secondly, putting the lives of starving
children, men, and women on the line for the sake of funding a controversial
dam project while the well-connected few thrive is outrageous and immoral.
Whatever happened to humanity, morality?
That escapes me.
Read the shocking news buried in the following report by Aaron Maasho of
Reuters.
- Wondwossen
-----
Ethiopia exchange eyes food aid in
expanded trade
By
Aaron Maasho
June
21, 2012
ADDIS
ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's commodity exchange wants to increase trade in
maize and wheat by including some of its imported food aid and to offer
additional items such as sugar, its chief executive said on Thursday.
"We
are currently in discussions with the government about how to take on a much
bigger way maize and wheat trading in the country, including monetisation of
imported food aid into the country through the exchange," Eleni
Gabre-Madhin told reporters.
Eleni
did not elaborate on how this might work when asked for details, but a system
to allow the government to sell surplus food aid would permit it to raise funds
for initiatives such as drilling boreholes for water or improving the country's
electricity supply.
"We
have been also in discussions about, to some extent, sugar trading and further
fruit crops as well," she said.
Africa's
biggest coffee producer has big plans to boost agricultural output by 2015,
including coffee volumes to 700,000 tonnes.
Its
ECX commodity exchange, launched in mid-2008, also wants to expand. It
currently trades coffee, maize, sesame and white pea beans through an open cry
system.
It
announced plans last year to trade sorghum, chick peas, lentils and niger seeds
by expanding warehouse facilities, and to introduce forward and future
contracts within three years in a bid to tackle hoarding which has affected the
coffee market.
Eleni,
who leaves her post to take on an advisory role in September, said planning for
forward and future trading had stalled.
"The
policy dialogue (on future trading) was a bit stalled partly because of the
various crises that keep occurring in the broader market globally and over
fears that the design would have to really be cautious here in Ethiopia,"
she said.
"For
the moment that project is on hold."
The
exchange had a trading value of $1.5 billion and links over 2.4 million farmers
through its information system.
Traded
volumes reached 608,000 tonnes in the last fiscal year, up from 502,000 tonnes
the previous year, according to company figures.
The
government is forecasting a rise in coffee export revenues to $1.3 billion from
last year's $841 million, when output rose to 7.50 million 60-kg bags. The
International Coffee Organisation (ICO) has forecast Ethiopia's crop at 8.3
million bags.
Exports
reached almost 200,000 tonnes last year, but have faltered with just 75,000
tonnes shipped in the first eight months of this fiscal year which ends in
July.