Fikremariam Tesfaye
12 November 2008
Addis Ababa — The government of Japan yesterday handed over 9,600 metric tons of wheat worth 5.01 million USD to the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) in its Food Aid Scheme grant.
Kinichi Komano, Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia, delivered the food aid to Birhane Haile, Director General of the EGTE, at one of the Enterprise's warehouse in Addis Ababa.
On the handing over ceremony, the Ambassador said that the grant was timely since it took place when a significant number of Ethiopians are suffering from the impact of a jump in food prices and natural disasters.
This phenomenon is a growing concern to the government of Japan, since the increase in food prices is occurring more or less in all cities of Ethiopia and affecting many people, who are now suffering from a shortage of food, he said.
Currently, approximately more than a billion people in the world are suffering from hunger, the situation being aggravated by the global food crisis. Japan has provided food aid to the developing countries faced with food shortages and has supported efforts to improve food productivity of the developing countries.
To addressing food deficit in Africa at the G-8 Summit hosted by Japan in mid this year, the leaders decided to focus on exploring short, medium and long term solutions, while committing themselves to provide 10 billion USD. Among others, at the Summit held in May this year, Japan decided to provide 168 million USD as Food Aid to Africa, the ambassador added.
Ambassador Komano expressed that Japan will continue its support of food aid with a focus on people whose survival is at stake and in an emergency situation. He expressed his conviction that this food aid will be used as efficiently and effectively as possible and that it would make a substantial contribution to adjust food prices to an affordable level.
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