ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has to take strong measures to fight informal border trade that deprived the country a significant amount of income, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) said.
The institute has organized a workshop on Wednesday themed “Informal Cross Border Trade in Ethiopia: The Case of Live Animal and Other Agricultural Outputs of Ethiopia.”
Presenting a paper on the occasion, EIAR Senior Researcher Rehima Mussema (PhD), said an informal cross border trade is preventing Ethiopia from securing a significant amount earnings in agricultural products and live animals sale.
She said more than 130,000 Ethiopia’s live animal outflows due to informal cross border trade.
The main reason for the expansion of informal cross border trade, as to Rehima, are increasing number of market manipulators and bureaucracy, limited technical support to farmers, lack of society collaboration, and absence of modern inspection tools.
However, she believed that it is difficult to stop this informal trade since it has socio economic benefit for border community such as employment opportunity, livelihood, food supply, and interaction with adjacent communities in the neighboring country.
“We cannot stop informal trade market but we can minimize by decreasing pull factors, create awareness on community,” the researcher said.
Live Animal and Animal Related Product Project Head at Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration Abebe Tadese on his part said that his ministry is working with Custom Commission to regulate informal and illegal border trade activities in checkpoints to facilitate the smooth exchange of goods with neighboring nations.
Informal cross border trade has been taking place in informal and formal way by traders, community, information providers among such nations in centuries, according to EIAR.
EIAR also called on members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to formulate a comprehensive legal framework to mitigate informal cross-border trade.
As to the institute, IGAD member states need to work hard on customizing and benefiting their community as well as boosting regional trade integration onwards.
The other strategy what IGAD nations needs to employ, according to EIAR is to revise trade policy, establish market center in border areas, and promote trade exhibitions, involving actors including officials and checkpoint gatekeepers
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 28 DECEMBER 2023
