Ethiopian food processing companies and Manufacturers hold a three day discussion to find easy ways that enable them to upgrade their exporting and penetrate specialty food market in the US, using the Africa Growth opportunity Act (AGOA).

Facilitated by USAID/AGOA Plus project, training is being conducted for local companies at the Sheraton Addis here by US leading food company, Tailing Trading Group, Managing Director, Jim Tailler.

The Managing Director told local manufacturers they need "strong competitive" to penetrate in the US market.

Though Ethiopia has been one of 39 African countries that AGOA access, it has not "significant" food items it exports to US. So far, it is only the textile sector that has taken the highest share of export the country had under AGOA.

According to Jim, Africa did not use the opportunity in exporting specialty food to America.

There is a little image about Africa in US. Mass Media mostly target bad or negative news like war, famine, he said adding 60% of US consumers buy specialty food.

"Africa has received little attention in media in USA and the Average US consumers have little or no knowledge of Africa as destination." There are over 500 African products currently in active distribution in the US market.

"We need all the support we get. Mass media and the tourism sector should play a lot to change perception about Africa," he suggested.

He also noted that individual manufacturers must focus on competitive price and sample product in-country.

"For Ethiopian specialty food, there needs for product development, improved national branding, increases quality, consistency and sustainability so far the US specialty food market is the largest in the world." He said noting AGOA gives African manufacturers a proven vehicle for accessing the US market.

AGOA Plus, Deputy Chief of Party, Teklu Kidane told The Daily Monitor that they are undertaking sample and trail activity to help Ethiopian manufacturers upgrade their involvement in the US market.

He said "there has been informed export of food, spices and honey to US. Now we are designing a formal structure that enables Ethiopian companies exporting specialty food widely. Now we are also examining select potential local companies." The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a United States Trade Act that significantly enhances U.S. market access for (currently) 39 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The Act originally covered the 8-year period from October 2000 to September 2008, but amendments signed into law by U.S.President George Bush in July 2004 further extend AGOA to 2015. At the same time, a special dispensation relating to apparel was extended by three years to 2007. On 20 December 2006, key changes to AGOA were signed into law, extending the garment provisions to 2012. In June 2007, a revised textile certificate of origin was published to give effect to the "abundant supply" provisions contained in the most recent legislative changes.

AGOA builds on existing U.S. trade programs by expanding the (duty-free) benefits previously available only under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) program. Duty-free access to the U.S. market under the combined AGOA/GSP program stands at approximately 7,000 product tariff lines, including the roughly 1,800 product tariff lines that were added to the GSP by the AGOA legislation.

Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


Click here to view a sector profile of Ethiopia's bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.

Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: (click each link to view)