The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) is a

commodities exchange A commodities exchange is an exchange, or market, where various commodities are traded. Most commodity markets around the world trade in agricultural products and other raw materials (like wheat, barley, sugar, maize, cotton, cocoa, coffee, ...

established April 2008 in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. In Proclamation 2007-550, which created the ECX, its stated objective was "to ensure the development of an efficient modern trading system" that would "protect the rights and benefits of sellers, buyers, intermediaries, and the general public." Keeping a quick turnover of stock

The ECX is set up as a private company owned by a partnership of the market actors, members of the exchange, and the Ethiopian government, led by Eleni Gebre Medhin a former economist for the

International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international research center focused on agriculture and food systems that provides research-based policy solutions to reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition throughout low- ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. As of July 2011, the physical presence of the ECX consists of 55 warehouses in 17 regional locations. It has grown from trading 138,000 tons in its first year to 508,000 tons in its third year, with nearly equal shares of coffee and oilseeds and pulses. The value of the ECX rose 368% between 2010 and 2011 to reach US$1.1 billion.Publications
ifpri.org As of November 2010, the trading floor in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

handled 200

spot contract In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after th ...

s in commodities such as

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

sesame Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for ...

navy bean The navy bean, haricot bean, Jigna bean, pearl haricot bean, Boston bean, white pea bean, or pea bean is a variety of the common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris'') native to the Americas, where it was first domesticated. It is a dry white bean that ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

."Ethiopia Commodity Exchange: Operations"
(accessed 12 November 2010) It was assessed in July 2011 that membership equaled 243 with clients, who trade through members, about 7,800. Farmer cooperatives represented 2.4 million

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

farmers, which make up 12% of the membership. Currently, the ECX is the only stock or commodity exchange in Africa to have streamlined payment transfers down to " T+1" (ext day payment after a trade) from its clearinghouse to its partner commercial banks. Market data reach is expansive. "Push" price date is transmitted in real time to outdoor electronic ticker boards in 32 rural sites, the ECX website, 256,000 mobile subscribers via instant messaging, the radio, TV and print media. "Pull" market data is available through a toll-free phone-in service. The service received more than 1 million calls in September 2011, 70% coming from rural callers. The first year of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange's existence is documented in the PBS Wide Angle film ''The Market Maker''.

References

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External links

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX)

Commodity exchanges Companies of Ethiopia 2008 establishments in Ethiopia

See also

References

External links