BY TEWODROS KASSA
Different researches indicate that Ethiopia is suitable for bumper crop production, especially Teff and wheat. Ethiopia has more than 70 million hectares of arable land but only cultivates 12 million hectares of land. The country embraces large arable land and water potentials that can feed more than its current population if latest agricultural technologies are utilized and appropriately promote large-scale private investments in the sector.
However, the country is prone to continuous drought and water scarcity. This Horn-of- African nation is home to numerous trans-boundary rivers, including the famous Abay River (Blue Nile).
Currently, the Ethiopian government is moving towards ensuring food and nutrition security of the ever-growing population with the available arable land through successful agronomic practices. However, the country still harvests below its potential and is repeatedly affected by the severe droughts that caused millions of displacement and hunger. Although the country has registered double-digit economic growth in the past decades, depending on the rain-fed traditional agricultural system and harvesting once a year, may not be enough to ensure food security for its large population.
Different experts recommended that changing the current household-level traditional harvesting system, introducing new agricultural technologies, establishing new agro-food industries, and inviting successful sector investors, among others are important to realize the country’s journey towards ensuring food security.
To this end, the private sector involvement is vital in the efforts to fulfill the growing population demand for food through increasing supply with affordable price.
Bekema Cake, Cookies, and Bread Bakery Founder and Owner Kesetebrehan Araya is one of the investors that joined the agro-food industry three years before in 2019. He was born in Dessie and grew up in Addis Ababa around Sidest Kilo. He attended his primary education at Emperor Nakutoleab School. He also completed his secondary education at Teferi Mekonnen Secondary School. After joining Addis Ababa University, he obtained an Advanced Diploma in Building Engineering from the College of Architecture in 1999.
After that, he was employed as a technical assistant lecturer at the same university and studied civil engineering in the evening educational program, and received his bachelor’s degree in 2005. After working as a teacher at Addis Ababa University for 3 years, he worked with French contractors for 3 and half years in Gefersa Dam Project.
Moreover, he has been working for various public and private companies in Ethiopia and abroad. He moved to Nigeria and worked in a company known as Salini for a few months and joined another Nigerian road construction company called Setraco Construction, where he worked for seven years.
Kesetebrehan has been dreaming to open his own business with his wife Etsegenet Birhanu. Then, he come back to Ethiopia and decided to start a furniture business. However, the furniture business idea failed due to the investment land problem. During this time, he tried other businesses and finally joined the bread bakery in 2019.
Kesetebrehan and his wife bought the bread machines they needed and imported from Turkey. In February 2019, they opened a state-of-the-art cake, cookies, and bread bakery called Bekema in Addis Ababa around Shola market area with an initial capital of 3 million Birr and 30 employees.
Considering the lower local experience in bread making, the company hired a Syrian professional bread baker who could do the whole job and teach the process to local employees. Then the company started to provide small-sized loaves of bread to the community with 2 Birr and 50 cents price. The price of single bread is now 5 Birr which is more affordable compared to other bakeries in the city. The company said it will review the price of bread if it harvests wheat itself and the price of other bread inputs such as oil and fuel is settled.
In the process, the company continues to produce and supply different sizes of bread, cookies, and cakes. Local employees also become competent with the baking process and substituted the Syrian man after a few months.
Currently, Bekema Bakery expands its branch into four locations in Megenagna, two shops in Sholla, and in Kasanchis. The company has finalized preparations to open its 6th branch in Addis Ababa. It also plans to reach its bread products to regional states outside of Addis Ababa in the coming years.
Bekema utilizes more than 600 quintals of wheat per month and more than 7,200 quintals of wheat per year.
After joining the market, the company’s annual income has been growing. The annual cake, cookies, and bread sales is said to have reached 78 million Birr from 42 million Birr in the past year.
The bakery is 24/7 operational and strives to meet the Addis Ababa city resident’s demand. Currently, it has the capacity to produce more than 40,000 small-sized loaves of bread and 2,000 Enjera per day using its four branches. The company also created more than 140 permanent jobs for youths and women in various fields.
Kesetebrehan said that the company uses high-quality flour for its products and takes great care to maintain quality so as to ensure customer satisfaction. To produce the products, the company uses two bread machines and one cake machine bought and imported with an estimated cost of 7.5 million Birr from abroad.
According to Kesetebrehan, the company plans to increase the current bread production through entering to the agricultural sector investments and solve the problem of wheat supply which is the main input for bread production.
“Doing this will enable the company to solve the bread input problem and promote its production. More importantly, the company gives more priority to deliver quality bread with affordable price through increasing the number of branches and manpower,” he said.
Regarding the challenges and opportunities in the bakery sector, the biggest problem of the sector is lack of wheat in the country. Since the bakery input is directly related to agriculture it is possible to increase the supply of wheat through undertaking large-scale agricultural mechanizations in the country.
The ongoing summer wheat production in various parts of Ethiopia is progressing well and expected to fulfill the country’s growing demand for wheat. The summer wheat cultivation undertaking in the lowlands of Afar, Somalia, Oromia and other states is bearing fruits.
Although the government has started to increase the supply of wheat and to reduce the import there is still a lot to be done. It is important to replace other ingredients of oil, yeast and sugar, which are mostly imported from abroad to produce bread.
Accordingly, expanding the availability of wheat and other bread inputs will have a significant contribution to supply bread into the market with affordable price.
Currently, the company is communicating with expatriate partners from India to launch and harvest its wheat inputs in the next two years. It will also continue to fulfil its social responsibilities through supporting the needy.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 27 JULY 2022
