A four-month-old platform developed by coffee industry insiders looks to automate Ethiopia’s agricultural export supply chain through a unified market interface. Ethiopia-exports.com is piloting a portal where industry players can access a long list of commodities, trace their source, and verify their quality before conducting a transaction.
Biruk Asegid, Founder of Ethiopia-exports, says Ethiopia’s agricultural export supply chain is rife with middlemen who add little value and only serve to distort genuine free market operations. He believes that equipping industry players with real-time information on prices and supply of commodities will foster competition and enhance exports.
“The platform was birthed from our own frustrations,” Biruk told Shega.
Just a few months back the founder recalls getting into a fierce price-cutting battle on a shipment of coffee as middlemen fueled speculation about the size of the delivery. He recalls being amazed at how another exporter was ready to sell at a loss all because of misinformation in the market. While in its early stages, the Platform is averaging 2,000 weekly visits and has conducted 10 successful transactions, according to Biruk.
“We expect visitors to increase to 20,000 when we start sharing live price updates,” he says.
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