BY HIZKEL HAILU
Several Months have lapsed since the terrorist group, TPLF, has declared war against Ethiopia and Ethiopians. And the House of Peoples’ Representatives endorsed a resolution handed over to it by the Council of Ministers designating the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Shene as terrorist organizations in May, 2021.
These terrorist groups have brought negative impact on the development of national economy. Indeed, there are some individuals coupled with internal and external groupswhich have been supporting the terrorist TPLF to dismantle Ethiopia. There are also some greedy traders who are struggling to bring highest economic pressure in the country.
Of course, terrorist acts can seemingly cause ripple effects through the economy that resulted in negative impacts. The most obvious is the direct economic destruction of property and lives. Besides, terrorism indirectly affects the economy by creating market uncertainty, xenophobia, loss of tourism earning, and increased insurance claims.
This is something what the TPLF and its ilk are doing in Ethiopia despite the government of Ethiopia, with the people’s firm support, is working hard to breakdown their brutal acts. The TPLF has escalated the conflict further, aiming at leading the country to disintegration. But the people and government of Ethiopia have precluded the wishes of the terrorist from fulfilling. Still, there are some greedy traders and collaborators of the terrorist group that are immersed in economic sabotages.
The Federal Cooperatives Agency is working exhaustively to mitigate the national economic and social pressure. Accordingly, the agency recently has stated that some 33 cooperatives have engaged in agricultural production and processing apart from 18 cooperatives engaging in buying and selling of 150 thousand quintals of agricultural products in a bid to contain the current inflation.
On the discussion forum organized by the Agency at Adama last week to create a market linkage between producer and consumer cooperatives, the Agency Director General, Usman Surur stated that parallel to the war waged against Ethiopia, enemies of the country have carried out economic war against the people.
Contrary to the country’s call of its citizens to stand alongside the unity, sovereignty, peace and development of Ethiopia, some illegal actors in the market are creating artificial inflation through hoarding products, he noted.
Usman further noted that the agency is working jointly with cooperatives to reverse the artificial demand-supply imbalance in the market aiming to control the rising inflation. According to him, though it is natural for the occurrence of demand-supply shortage especially in agricultural products during the winterseason in Ethiopia, the current imbalance and inflation is totally subjective and artificial.
The Director General further underlined that the demand-supply imbalance and the inflation can be simplyreversed and controlled if the corporative unions work hard jointly with the government bodies since the problem is artificial. He added that thereare enough agricultural products with the producer cooperatives.
Being thankful for the participants, members and managements of genuine corporative unions across the country, Usman pointed out that the agency is working to strengthen the direct linkage of producer-consumer cooperatives to tackle the problem.
Yirgalem Eniyew, Cooperatives marketing Director at the Agency on her part stated that there is surplus product per the assessment of that the agency has made to know the current demand by buyers’ cooperatives and availability of agricultural products in the producer cooperatives warehouses.
Based on the assessment, the demand of cooperatives is 142,686 quintals of agricultural products; she said adding 257,186 quintals of agricultural products are available currently in the warehouses of producer cooperatives. Hence, she asserted, there is 111 thousand surplus products. So to bridge the market gap, the agency has been creating a direct linkage between the producers and consumers cooperatives.
Yirgalem further reiterated that the producer cooperatives are also undertaking different activities to announce their capacity of production and provide over one million quintals of agricultural products until the end of October. For the positive flow of products provision, 33 agricultural producers and processors and 18 consumer cooperatives have signed a memorandum of understanding to providethe cooperatives 150 thousand quintals of agricultural products for the market.
In addition, the cooperatives have signed an agreement for the provision of 300 thousand quintals of agricultural products in the future. The cooperatives from all states confirmed that they have the capacity to manage the problem and call on the government to address the hurdles challenging them along this line.
According to the cooperatives, illegal trade, finance problems and market linkage gaps are amongst the common problems of the cooperatives. Theagency also mentioned currently over 99,500 cooperatives with 31.7 billion capital and over 24 million members are available across the country. In addition, 398 unions and five federations are engaged in different investments, it was learnt.
Applauding the contribution of the corporative unions in protecting artificial price hike across the nation, Umer Hussien – Minister of Agriculture stated that the ministry will work jointly with the agency to solve the financial and other related problems of the union for further accomplishment in stimulating the national economy.
Owing to the fact the terrorist TPLF has also headed an economic war against Ethiopians; the government of Ethiopia is making its indispensable role in collaboration with the private and public sectors in order to mitigate the economic problem, the minister explained.
Moreover, the cooperative’sstaff members have contributed 50 percent of their one month salary coupled with commitment todonateblood showing their solidarity with the Ethiopian National Defense Force besides its commitment to mitigate the inflation and artificial economic pressure across the country, the Agency disclosed.
Meanwhile Consumer Cooperative Unions in Addis Ababa have donated more than 15 million Birr to the National Defense Forces apart from the supporting the government in mitigating the economic inflation in the city and across the country as well.
Apart from the 15 million Birrcontribution, the management and the staff members of the Addis Ababa City Cooperative Agency, sub-city and Woreda cooperative offices have also donated blood to the defense forces to show their harmony with the defense force.
Addis Ababa City Cooperative Agency Director General, Wubneh Emiru, for his part, said that 148 basic consumer cooperatives in the city have provided more than 15 million birr in cash and material support to the National Defense Forces. The Director further asserted that the consumer cooperatives will further continue to strengthen their support to the defense forces.
The Ethiopian Herald September 2/2021
