Ethiopia has secured more than 1.1 billion US dollars in revenue from export of various commodities to abroad over the last five months, the Ministry of Trade said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA here on Tuesday, Public Relations Director with the Ministry, Amakele Yemam said that the stated sum secured during the reported period exceeds last year’s same period by 227.5 million US dollars.

The country has exported about 35 types of agricultural and industrial products to more than 120 countries worldwide during the reported period, Amakele said.

Coffee, gold, Khat, oil seeds and live animals accounted for 817.7 million USD of the total sum obtained during the period in reference. The balance was obtained from other industrial and agricultural products.

The nation has targeted to obtain 4.5 billion US dollars in revenue from the export trade in this Ethiopian fiscal year (2004 EC), according to Amakele.

Some 2.75 billion US dollars was secured in 2003 EC from foreign trade.

The revenue the country obtains from foreign trade has been increasing from time to time showing a 20 per cent growth, he said.

The foreign exchange earning the nation gets has reached over 2.75 billion US dollars in 2003, from the one billion USD revenue in 1998 EC.

He said the incentives and support provided by the government combined with the increase in the number and quality of export items played major role for the increase in the amount of revenue obtained from the sector.

ENA