Cooperative Unions are playing a dominant role in igniting trade and industrialization. They are contributing an indispensable role in rural development efforts. As the capital of each cooperative union grows, it embarks on investing largely in the surrounding areas. Thus, it directly expands industrialization and helps to create numerous job opportunities to youths without moving far from their home.
Above all cooperative unions are contributing more in easing the rising cost of living in the country. The government also recognizes cooperative unions as the right hand for sustainable growth.
Agency Public Relations Director, Ayalsew Workneh, told The Ethiopian Herald that the Federal Cooperative Agency is working massively on agricultural and industrial inputs supply amid COVID-19. It sets a new direction for cooperative unions to supply agricultural and industrial inputs to fill the demand gap that happens during this COVID-19 pandemic season.
For instance, cooperative unions generate up to USD 10 million in foreign exchange from the export of coffee, sesame, haricot bean and other products in the past month. The products are exported to Belgium, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Thus, cooperatives are playing their part in the economy of the country by providing high-value market channel linkage and generating tangible hard currency by gaining the best value of different agricultural products export.
Currently, most of the agricultural products of different cooperative unions member farmers have already stored in warehouses and will be transported for export and local consumption.
“More than 1.368 million quintals of agricultural products have been stored in a warehouse. Out of this, some 184,000 quintals of the product have been supplied for the market and more than 854,000 quintals of products are stored in warehouses”.
Thus, the agency is undertaking different measures regarding the creation of a sustainable supply-demand linkage system to save cooperative unions from loss specifically in fruit and vegetable products.
The cooperative unions are fulfilling their social responsibilities by providing financial and material support to the community in addition to disseminating agricultural inputs to the farmers.
According to Ayalnesh, the agency is striving to withstand the COVID-19 socio-economic impact on cooperative unions by coordinating its members.
More importantly, cooperatives are introducing agro-industries and farm machinery in Ethiopia. Farmers’ cooperative unions countrywide are playing a dominant role in establishing diversified agriculture-related industries and factories in urban and metropolitan areas contributing to industrializing various towns as a result underlying urban development and pooling products for processing from a rural area that links both in marketing and technology introductions.
These reveal that cooperatives in Ethiopia are contributing their part to establish different industries and factories and improve the services and benefits of members from the mostly rural area. Consequently, for the fact that these industries were established in the urban and metropolitan areas of the country, they are contributed to urban industrialization and the introduction of technology. They also have an essential role in supporting the government program of bringing about structural change in the economy from agriculture to industrial led economy.
Creating huge job opportunities, industrialization, financial mobilization, market stabilization, promoting good governance, among others, are the significant roles of cooperative unions.
On the other hand, the absence of comprehensive cooperative policy, inadequate finance, lack of active members, effective leadership and management, and awareness are the major challenges that are hindering the growth of cooperative unions.
Therefore, considering the indispensable role of cooperative unions in expediting industrialization the government is expected to promote cooperative unions. Cooperative unions have been playing a catalyzing role in transforming agriculture mechanization, expediting industrialization, and suppo- rting Ethiopia’s sustainable development goals realization.
Currently, numerous cooperative unions are exporting coffee, spices, honey, and other agricultural products and generated more than 300 million USD in the past fiscal year.
The market share of cooperative unions is also growing from time to time in which it supplies consumption goods at affordable prices to the public. The federal cooperatives agency is working on the fifteen years cooperatives road map that will be active up to 2033. Mitigating challenges of the sector is fundamental to enhance the socio-economic benefit of peoples. The cooperative unions are playing an indispensable role in market stabilization and generating more foreign exchange in the export sector.
It was learned that there are over 90,000 main cooperative unions, 388 cooperative unions, and 4 cooperative unions’ federations nationwide. In sum, these cooperative unions employees over 21 million citizens.
The Ethiopian Herald July 30, 2020
BY TEWODROS KASSA
