The airspace between Ethiopia and Eritrea that has been closed by A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has opened as of Thursday.
Sources at the authority told Capital that the airspace has been opened as of Thursday two days before the Eritrean president travels to Ethiopia for an official visit.
In relation to his visit last Sunday to Asmara Abiy Ahmed (PhD), Prime Minister, has agreed with Eritrean head of state President Isayas Afeworqi to re-commence road and air transport in addition to using sea ports in Eretria.
The visit of the two leaders has occurred after two decades since the outbreak of the border war and ’cold war’ peace condition.
Early this week Ethiopia Airlines (ET) announced that it would begin daily flights to Asmara as of July 17, which would be the first time since it stopped in May 1998. Its first flight would be with the most technologically advanced commercial aircraft, the Boeing 787, according to the statement Ethiopian sent to Capital.
The two countries agreed in 1993 to undertake commercial flights that will allow Ethiopian to fly without further negotiations.
According to reports, the PM’s flight route went via Djibouti to get to Eritrea. Since the Eritrean air space is opened the flights to the north will be shorter and more fuel efficient. For its flights to the Middle East and other countries in the north, ET has been forced to use the airspace of Djibouti and Sudan, which is more costly in terms of time and fuel.
Other airlines that use this area has also been affected by the NOTAM in relation to the Civil Aviation Authority NOTAM which announced the opening of the airspace to Eritrea, other airlines will also use this space.
Eritrea, Ethiopia opens airspace
Coffee revenue declines by USD 44m
Coffee export earnings, which is Ethiopia’s major source of foreign currency, declined during this past fiscal year even though the volume of coffee exports rose.
During the 2017/18 budget year, which ended July 7, USD 838.2 million came from coffee exports. A year ago the brought in USD 882 million. That is a reduction of USD 44 million.
In the 2017/18 budget year 238,465 metric tons were exported throughout the world. In 2016/17 225,668 metric tons of the green bean were exported, according to the latest report from the Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority.
Coffee revenue is far from what was hoped for in the GTP II matrix.
According to the authority’s report, the achievement for the year was 88.2 percent in volume and 72.4 percent in value.
Germany has continued to be the major destination for Ethiopian coffee with 22 percent share of the total export volume. According the report the Coffee and Tea Authority revealed, Germany has imported 51,634 metric tons with USD 145 million revenue, which is 17 percent of the total revenue.
USA and Saudi Arabia stood in the second and third position. The US has bought USD 141 million worth or 26,656 metric tons, while Saudi imported 37,405 metric tons of coffee with USD 121 million. Japan, Belgium, South Korea, Italy, Sudan, France, and UK are in third to tenth place respectively.
From the total export these ten importers covered 86.2 percent and 84.4 percent of the volume and the value respectively.
METEC building construction delay costing Tourism Bureau millions
The Addis Ababa Cultural and Tourism Bureau (AACTB) wants to have its own office. However the agency reports that because of slow G+12 head office construction work being done by the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), the bureau has wasted nine million birr on house rent.
Currently the bureau is paying 538,000 birr a month to rent an office around Arat Killo. Since 2014 they have paid 25 million birr in rent. When the building is finished it will be the office for ACTB, the Addis Ababa Children and Youth Sport Center, a theater and a game emporium. Six years ago METEC agreed to complete the project at a cost of 348.3 million birr in three years time. However, the corporation requested an additional 200 million birr from the Addis Ababa City Administration Construction and Housing Development Bureau (ACHDB) to complete the project.
The hard currency shortage and the increasing cost of finishing materials are the reasons given by METEC for the total increasing cost of the construction.
ACHDB is not happy with METEC’s request. They wrote a letter to the Cultural and Tourism Bureau to administer the project but the bureau told the construction bureau to finish the project. A letter is signed by Tesfaye Omega, vice head of ACTB said the misunderstanding between the construction bureau and the consultant is costing time and money.
“By no means transferring the administration to cultural bureau is not a fair thing. The construction bureau has not had good coordination with the consultants. When the consultants ask for a price adjustment ACHDB, which made the deal in the first place, has the duty to entertain the question but instead it is trying to escape the challenge by transferring the problem to us which is not legal.”
Habtamu Tekle, the Addis Ababa Children and Youth Center CEO told Capital that poor supervision by ACHDB is the big reason behind the delay of the project.
“METEC asked for a price adjustment to ACHDB one year ago but they replied recently and told the cultural bureau to administer the project. It is misunderstanding by stakeholders that is retarding the project.”
He added that the building work needs a fast response from the administration so the building can be finished and used for its indented purpose.
Addis Ababa Children and Youth Center is currently using an old hall located in Arat klilo.
Ethiopia to use Aflasafe technology to reduce aflatoxin in red pepper
To reduce the amount of aflatoxin in some red pepper products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources is planning to apply Aflasafe by the middle of next year. The technology will come from Nigerian laboratories.
Aflasafe is a technology first developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and IITA and its partners are spearheading its adoption in Africa. It is a bio-control product developed using the same family of fungi as those that produce aflatoxins, which do not produce the poison and are further able to outcompete and displace the aflatoxin producing fungi. The Aflasafe TZ is made from country-specific strains of the fungi.
Studies show that the application of aflasafe TM in farmers’ fields reduced aflatoxin contamination by more than 90 percent, and birds fed with aflasafe TM-treated maize recorded less mortality and had a higher feed conversion ratio.
The technology is currently in use in Nigeria, Kenya, and The Gambia. Nine other African countries are at various levels of developing their country specific strains. These include Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Dr. Eyasu Abrha State Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources told Capital that the technology will be applied after new country specific strain is developed.
“Our red pepper is popular so we must get rid of the alfatoxin and this Nigerian laboratory will provide good Aflasafe technology.”
He added that the new quality checking laboratory will be built in Addis Ababa at a cost of USD10 million next year.
But experts said the ministry should look at the cost and impact study before it applies the technology
Addisu Alemayehu, a senior expert in field of spices, herbs and aromatic products said, “aflatoxin is not coming from the pre harvest process, we have to look at our storage, transport services and on the other side we have to look at how it will increase the production of farmers beside its affordability. If it takes five years or more, we should look another option to get a quick solution.’’
Produced by the fungus Aspergillusflavus, aflatoxins are naturally occurring fungal toxins abundant in the soil that contaminate food products such as maize, groundnut, as well as other crops. They are carcinogenic to man and cause immune-suppression, cancer, and growth reduction in animals. In some cases, consumption of high levels of aflatoxins has resulted in deaths of animals and human beings. In Kenya, for instance, consumption of maize contaminated with aflatoxins resulted in about 200 deaths between 2004 and 2006.
Hot pepper powder worth ten million USD has been returned to Ethiopia from European markets when it was found to have unsafe levels of Aflatoxins and Ochratoxins during testing at entrance laboratories in European countries.
Last year Ethiopian hot pepper was banned in the UK last fiscal year until it could successfully pass quality control tests and the Ethiopian Embassy in London began working jointly with hot pepper importers to improve the product. Germany also blocked a large amount of hot pepper from entering their borders.
Ethiopia harvests the 8th most red pepper in the world.
