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Al-amoudi’s soft drink firm stops production

MOHA (Mohammed Hussein Al-amoudi) Soft Drink Industry S.C stops its production of soft drinks.
MOHA which is popular for producing drinks like 7 UP, MIRINDA, PEPSI, Tossa Minch natural water, and Kool Carbonated Natural Mineral Water, has shut its doors due to ongoing challenges.
The ongoing challenges stem from the current shortage in foreign currency in addition to the firm facing a shortage of such raw materials. To this end, as sources indicated to Capital, the company has now stopped its production of 7 UP, MIRINDA, and PEPSI products.
As sources revealed, since a few months back, the company has been working for three days per week which is under its capacity due to lack of raw materials. As the strain has weighed in heavy, the soft drink firm has had to stop its activities as from the last two weeks.
Employees have also been forced to take cumulative leave with pay until the problem is sorted out, sources explain.
The severe shortage of foreign exchange has resulted in delays in importing vital raw materials like glass, crates, and spare parts for production of the beverages. Bottlers now report that they are struggling with foreign currency shortage problems, a lack of raw materials, disruptions due to power outages, and the overpricing of raw materials necessary for production.
Previously, about 20 bottled water producers had stopped their production as a result of shortage and price hike of materials.
MOHA which is a member of MIDROC Ethiopia (Mohammad International Development Research Organization Companies) is engaged in manufacturing and selling of different types of soft drink in Ethiopia. The company was acquired from the Ethiopian Privatization Agency and established on May 15, 1996.
The overall activates of the company are managed and administrated by Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, owner of the company.
In the market, MOHA Soft Drinks Industry S.C claims it holds a 52% market share in the soft drinks industry in the country. With an expansion and replacement of obsolete machinery, production capacity of the plant has increased substantially. A significant growth over the years of production, sales, and profitability due to reorganization of operations has been achieved. Productivity has improved tremendously with major cost saving and has insured a regular supply of high quality products. It has also succeeded in reaching new market areas across the country.
Getachew Birbo, CEO of MOHA when reached out by Capital refused to comment on the issue.

Ministry calls on exporters to register

The Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration calls up on oilseed and pulse businesses exporting to China to be registered.
The new requirements come into effect on 1 January 2022. Businesses exporting to China may need to apply to be registered and ensure their labeling is compliant well in advance of the requirements coming into effect.
According to the letter the ministry calls exporters which have their own processing facilities including conducting farming, manufacturing, storage required standards registration number to get a permit.
The new requirements cover the registration of overseas food manufacturing, processing, and storage businesses. They also set out labeling requirements. The requirements apply to a broad range of food products.
Previously undisclosed amount of oilseeds that was transported to China has changed its voyage back to the country due to latest new law imposed by the most populous nation in the world and major trading partner of Ethiopia.
On his performance report that Gebremeskel Chala presented on Tuesday April 5 at the parliament said that as per the declaration of China issued late last year agricultural products that are entered into its border from different countries should have pass the requirement that it introduced.
He said that the declaration of the fast growing economy country has designed agricultural commodities like oilseeds and pulses, which are Ethiopia’s major export commodities to China, exporters should have their own processing facilities and required standards registration number to get a permit.
“We have significant number of exporters, while those who meet the criteria are very few. Those who have their own processing facilities are not more than 40,” he explained.
“Without our knowledge about the new standard set by the Far East country sesame seed has been started its voyage to China, however lately we have got the new declaration due to that the consignment is now returning back to Ethiopia,” he added what was happened on Ethiopian sesame seed export in related with the new declaring of China.
According to Gebremeskel, the registration process for exporters that shall align with the precondition is doing and others who do not have the capacity to meet the criteria may use the registration number of other exporters.
On his eight month report of the 2021/22 budget year Gebremeskel said that because of the new import standard that has become in effect in December last year the volume of sesame seeds, which is one of the major export earning agricultural commodity for the country and the major destination for the Ethiopian seeds is China, exported to the second biggest economy in the world has declined by 74 in volume for January 2022 only.
“The volume has declined by 3,477 tons and in terms of value it has reduced by 73 percent in the month of January compared with the same period of last year,” he said.
The Order imposes a new labeling requirement for all food products imported into China to include the registration number on the label of the inner and outer packaging of the food products, which China Customs would examine and verify at the border prior to granting customs clearance.

ECA refutes Safaricom’s deadline extension claims

Still no new service will be operational before July

Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA) refutes the claim of extending the deadline for the commercial launching date of Safaricom Ethiopia.
Safaricom Ethiopia fails to meet its agreements with the Ethiopian government which was supposed to be in early April, which Safaricom was supposedly starts its commercial launch.
As sources had explained to Capital, the authority was signaled to have extended the commercial launching deadline verbally for Safaricom to July, 2022. However, the authority through its letter sent to Capital has clarified that it has by no means extended the date.
Based on the agreement with the government and its license operation, the new telecommunications entrant was supposed to start after nine months following its license award, but that has faced setbacks in the timeline.
In response to Capital’s query regarding its operation, last week Safaricom Ethiopia stated that; “We are continuing preparations for our commercial launch in 2022. An important part of this, as announced is reaching in principle agreement with Ethio Telecom on interconnection, transmission capacity and tower and power-sharing.”
Safaricom had announced that it completed building its own network, customer handling system and test calls in various cities, including Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Hawassa, Dire Dawa and Harar. And as sources from Safaricom had indicated, the telecommunications firm was to start its operation after inking the agreement with Ethio telecom in order for the agreement to become operational.
Safaricom Ethiopia is said to rely on Ethio Telecom’s infrastructure in order to offer its services to users. In its response, the company has also indicated that both companies are working towards concluding these agreements in accordance with the regulatory framework overseen by the ECA.
Accordingly, as sources from Ethio telecom explain, preparing the agreement needs a lot of work and even if the two parties sign the agreement within a short period, it will take at least 3 or up to four months for the deal to be operational.
On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, the two companies expressed that they have successfully concluded multi-round negotiations together with the regulator, ECA, on infrastructure sharing and interconnections, with agreements to be signed soon.
The agreement is said to last for 10 years on infrastructure sharing and interconnection. Severe disagreements had earlier arisen between the two companies regarding the price and currency of payment and under this agreement, the payment will be in both currencies, with varying ratios across the infrastructure type.
The agreement in principle with Ethio telecom was announced barely a month after the telecom operator signed an infrastructure-sharing agreement with the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) to deploy its aerial fibers.
Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, which won an operating license in Ethiopia in May 2021, has commenced works for telecom expansions in the country. Safaricom Ethiopia which is formed by the amalgamation of Safaricom, Sumitomo Corporation, CDC Group and Vodacom secured operational license from the government to officially do business in Ethiopia as a second telecom company after the state-owned Ethio Telecom.
Safaricom, which paid 850 million dollars for a 15-year license, is moving ahead with its infrastructure development project, having contracted Huawei and Nokia for its network development.
Capital’s efforts to reach out to Balcha Reba, Director General of ECA, for further comments on the issue have been unsuccessful.

EHPEA holds event to flourish its sector

The Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) hosts a sectoral promotion event to revamp the sector’s potential.
During the promotional conference held at the Inter Luxury Hotel on Thursday, April 28, the federal and regional investment officials turns to highlight the potential the country has in horticulture and other agricultural investments, whilst potential investors, ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic community sat in attended.
At the conference representatives of the Ethiopian Investment Commission and Ministry of Agriculture explained the government’s readiness to tap the sector investment potential. They elaborated that the government is creating an additional conducive environment for investors to invest in Ethiopia.
Regional investment bureau officials gave an inside view of the potential that the country has for the sector investment and equally responded to the questions raised by participants.
Tewodros Zewdie, Executive Director of EHPEA, said that although it is a little over a decade since Ethiopia started an organized endeavor to have a modern horticulture export industry; the sub-sector has shown quite glittering and exponential growth in the last ten years.
He added that since 2004, the Ethiopian horticulture export has skyrocketed by about 25-fold to become one of the top three hard currency generators from export and second in agricultural export only to coffee.
Tewodros added that the industry continues to be very dynamic, where growers are constantly improving sustainability through the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and energy-efficient systems.
“Ethiopia has both competitive and comparative advantages for the production and export of horticulture produce as the cost of doing business is cheaper in comparison with other countries,” he said in his opening remark at the conference by adding energy cost is among the cheapest in the world and suitable climatic condition in the country besides its proximity for global market and strong logistics scheme like the wide destination of Ethiopian Airlines.