ECX Trade floor
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ECX says traded 36.5bln Birr worth of Commodities this FY, so far

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced on Wednesday it has traded over 569, 767 metric tons of commodities in the first 10-months of the current 2020/21 Ethiopian fiscal year, which began on July 8, 2020.

The EXC said the total commodities traded in its platform during the period are valued 36.5 billion birr.

In a statement Wednesday, officials of the Exchange said they managed to accomplish their target set for the period both in terms of volume (101 percent) and value (107 percent).



Launched in 2008 to improve the efficiency of country’s trading system, the ECX has become main route to major agricultural commodities such as coffee and Sesame, major generators of foreign currency to Ethiopia.

Last year, coffee and sesame contributed 40.5% and 34.4 percent of the total commodities traded.

So far this FY, both commodities have taken the lion’s share of the value and volumes of the transaction.

Coffee Dominates

The Exchange said coffee took 35 percent share of the total commodities sold during the period. Over 201, 400 tons of Coffee worth 21.8 billion birr have been sold on the platform, it said.

Sesame has ranked the second highest performer during the period with 32 percent share. The exchange has sold 183, 299 tons of Sesame with a value of 9.8 billion birr in the past 10 months.

The other 11 commodities constituted the remaining 33 percent share.

Currently, the ECX has 25 branches to trade with focus on 12 agricultural commodities including one industrial input soybean.

The Exchange is now preparing to trade non-agricultural products as part of its effort push to modernize Ethiopia’s trading system.

The trading firm has recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to begin trading minerals in its platform.

“A committee composed of experts from the two institutions has started working to realize that,” the Exchange said.

‘Saving Forex’

In addition, the ECX plans to increase the number of agricultural commodities currently being sold in its trading platform.

The move could add more agricultural commodities as well as the number of processed products which the Exchange started to trade late last year with the approval by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The decision coincides with successful move to trade soybean – a major input for edible oil -via a special window in Nov 4, last year.

Since the opening of the window, a total of 39, 886mt of soybean valued 888 million birr traded among 25 edible processing plants based in Ethiopia.

“This has helped the country save a lot of foreign currency,” the Exchange’s statement issued on Wednesday said.

More facilities to open

Earlier this year, the modern trading floor that celebrates its 13th anniversary has made available warehouses and other facilities at Mizan Aman and Tepi towns in the western Ethiopia.

The Exchange will also soon open more electronic trading centers in Adma and Jimma cities.

These facilities “will help to enhance the supply of quality products for the international market”, its officials said.