Sidama’s abundance of rain, fertile land, and labor force help farmers expand to many products through which local markets are fed and local sufficiency is achieved.
“We grow pineapples here and within six months we can have a new crop – we carry it to the market to get money and this product benefits beyond the family to the local community,” says Tamne Tesfaye, an Ethiopian farmer.
“The products that are offered in the market, their prices rise or fall according to supply and demand,” he added, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, as he wandered in his circle crowded with pineapple trees, whose fruits were close to being harvested.
Agriculture in the southern regions of Ethiopia is characterized by its diversity between coffee bushes that cover vast areas in the mountains amid forests, and fruit trees that cover other areas in the lowlands – but the markets are still unable to absorb these products.
“We grow different types in this region. A product can be obtained several times during one year,” says the government official in the Ethiopian Sidama region, Ngato Helo.
“Most of the farmers here grow pineapples, and one piece can be sold for a dollar or a little less,” the government official explained, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”.
Despite the abundance of production, farmers complain about the lack of nearby markets, as well as the great benefits that merchants reap and farmers are denied.
In a country where labor is available and 80 percent of its population works in agriculture, the southern regions lead in fruit products of all kinds, which makes them a destination for traders and investors wishing to market within Ethiopia and export abroad.
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