September 9, 2017 - Sugar factories across Ethiopia will become operational this budget year and fully meet the domestic demand, Ethiopian Government stated. Ethiopia's Public Enterprises Minister, Dr. Girma Amente said there are encouraging improvements in the production of sugar, though the projects are late by two years in meeting the plan to export sugar.

"Of course we are late, but we are leaping forward,” the Ethiopian official stressed. According to the Minister, the recent export of sugar to Kenya was mainly meant to assess the market for future venture.

Yet, Dr. Girma said, meeting the demand for fine sugar will take some time as the demand is huge and requires the investment of foreign and local companies that are interested in investing in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian government revealed that import of sugar, which was 300,000 tons of sugar last Ethiopian year, has dramatically fallen to 50,000 tons. Of the 370 public enterprises at the start, there are only 20 that would be privatized gradually, it was learned.

"The Ethiopian government has set a clear direction that inefficient and incompetent public enterprises will not receive any protection,” Dr. Girma underlined.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency