Addis Ababa — Technological innovations have been employed to enhance the export quality and standards of Ethiopia's horticultural products, according to the Ethiopian Agricultural Authority.
A conference focusing on the production quality and safety of horticultural products kicked off in Addis Ababa today.
The aim of the conference is to create a favorable environment in which the quality of horticultural products produced in Ethiopia and offered to the foreign market could be competitive.
Ethiopia is one of the leading countries in the world with the capacity to produce huge amount of horticultural products, Ethiopian Agricultural Authority Director-General Diriba Kuma said.
Despite the low performance of the sector over the past years, efforts are underway to increase production and productivity in horticulture, he stated.
According to Diriba, promising results have so far been observed in the promotion of productivity and production in the sector.
As Ethiopia's 80 percent export commodities come from the agriculture sector, improving and modernizing the transactions and networks is imperative, he noted.
He recalled that the quality and standards of Ethiopia's horticultural export products were assessed manually, thus creating grounds for error on conformity to international quality and standards.
Therefore, technological innovations are now being put into use to rectify the complaints related to standards and quality from countries that import Ethiopia's horticultural products.
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Kuma stated that the main objective of the conference is to create a forum for the exchange of experience and also deliver on what the authority is doing in terms of improving the production, productivity and quality of horticultural products being exported to the international market.
Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association President, Tewodros Zewede said on his part that the conference would create a conducive situation to deliberate on issues of production, productivity and export of horticultural products.
As delegates from Europe and other African countries are participating in the conference, this would create ample opportunity to share experiences from other countries across the world, he added.
The president pointed out that the conference would help to comply with the guidelines and standards set by the EU with respect to horticultural products in particular.
