Ethiopia already imported 625,000 tonnes of fertilizers, buys 1.3m metric tonnes

The government of Ethiopia has purchased a gigantic amount of fertilizers in order to prepare the imminent Meher agriculture season.

According to New Business Ethiopia website, the Ethiopian government has purchased 1.3 million metric tonnes of fertilizer. The East African country plans to cover 12.7 million hectares of land with crops during the coming Meher agriculture season, which begins in June every year. The Ministry of Agriculture is partnering with the federal ministry of transport to bring the large amount of fertilizers from Djibouti port to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia intends to produce major crops of 406 million quintals during the 2011/12 Ethiopian calendar agriculture season. The country has already imported 625,000 tonnes of fertilizers and distributed among the farmers' unions, communications head of Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, Alemayehu Birhanu said.

For importing wheat and fertilizer, Ethiopia spends about one billion dollars per annum. In 2015, importing of fertilizers in Ethiopia was at its peak in December with 331,000MT (about 35 percent of all 2015 imports). Official reports show that in 2016 Ethiopia has invested USD 545.23 million. The country is utilizing around 16 million hectares of arable land out of the overall 30 million hectares.

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