Ethiopia is set to inaugurate four integrated agro-processing industrial parks built at a cost of $10 billion before June this year, Ministry of Trade and Industry announced on Tuesday. The industrial parks were supposed to be inaugurated last January, but the ministry stated there were delays due to redesigns.
“Construction of the pilot integrated agro-processing industrial parks (IAIPs) that cost 10 billion USD, excluding electric power supply cost, is expected to be completed until June this year” Ayalneh Abawa, Advisor for Integrated Agro-processing Parks in the ministry said.
According to the advisor, electric power coupled with shortage of foreign currency remains to be a challenge to complete them as per the schedule.
The pilot agro-processing parks have been under construction since 2016. About 80-100 investors are expected to engage in each park. Of these 80 percent will be local and the rest foreigners, he said.
The purpose of IAIPs is to attract the private sector to set up food processing plants in bumper producing areas by adding value to agricultural products, linking farmers to processing plants and creating wealth for them as well as reducing post-harvest loss and accelerating rural economic growth in Ethiopia.
Source: www.freshplaza.com