Ethiopia has achieved self-sufficiency in malting barley that it had been importing for years to meet the demands of the brewing industry, Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) disclosed.

Reports show that the country had been spending millions of USD to import 70 percent of the cereals required by its breweries. Ethiopia has stopped importing barley thanks to the government's efforts that enabled the nation to become self-sufficient with adequate local products, said Fitsum Ketema, Chief of Staff and Transformation Head of IPDC.

According to him, a malting barley producing company which operates at Bole Lemmi Industry Park has contributed to the barley production growth by supporting over 60,000 smallholder farmers to have direct access to the market. Such market linkage is being facilitated in Debre Berhan and Jimma agro processing industries, as to Fitsum.

He added that the country is also working on market integration for the trade-off between farmers and buyers in more agricultural products. Many industrial parks have been working on increasing the volume and variety of their products to alleviate the effects of the termination of Ethiopia from AGOA benefits, he noted.

This increment includes agro-processing, textiles, pharmaceuticals, car assembly and other productions, Fitsum stated. The country is also working on constructing additional industry parks and attracting foreign direct investment to create more jobs and increase foreign currency earnings, he indicated. Ethiopia's 13 industry parks are generating millions of dollars while creating over 100,000 jobs, according to the corporation.