Challenges and Opportunities of Horticultural Crops Export in Ethiopia: A Review

The agricultural sector greatly influences economic performance in Ethiopia. As part of the agricultural sector growth strategy, promoting the export oriented horticultural sector is getting attention in the country. The horticulture sector's contribution to Ethiopia's export earnings is still relatively small but increasing rapidly. This is due to the opportunities to expand the sector such as favourable climatic and socioeconomic conditions, favourable geographical location, macroeconomic and political stability, ample demand for horticultural products and etc. However, lack of knowledge and availability of the proper varieties with respect to local climatic conditions and consumer demand, limited packing, cooling, storage and handling systems, high transport cost, lack of skilled labour resources and technical know-how, restriction use of agro-chemicals, limited information about export markets, lack of domestic and foreign finance, lack of improved infrastructure and weak postharvest handling are some of the challenges that limit the growth of the sector. The provision of basic infrastructure, increasing capacity, access to finance, developing alternative markets and promotion, providing market information and dialogue with producers and exporters need to be strengthened to improve horticultural crops exports.