Ethiopia Commodity Exchange

Coordinates: 9°00′40″N 38°44′49″E / 9.011°N 38.747°E

Ethiopia Commodity Exchange
Type Commodities exchange
Location Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
FoundedApril 2008
OwnerEthiopian government and participants
CurrencyEthiopian birr
Volume508,000 tons (2011)
Websitewww.ecx.com.et
Eleni Gabre-Madhin at ECX

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) is a commodities exchange established April 2008 in Ethiopia. In Proclamation 2007-551, 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"[1]

Yihenew Tsegaye, manager of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange's Awassa warehouse, where Ethiopian coffee awaits exportation.

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 World Bank. 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 ton 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 percent between 2010 and 2011 to reach US$1.1 billion.[2] As of November 2010, the trading floor in Addis Ababa, handled 200 spot contracts in such commodities as Coffee, sesame, navy beans, maize and wheat.[3] It was assessed in July 2011 that total membership equaled 243 with total clients, who trade through members, numbered about 7,800. Farmer Cooperatives represented 2.4 millions smallholder farmers, which make up 12 percent of the membership.[4]

Currently, the ECX is the only stock or commodity exchange in Africa to have streamlined payment transfers down to "T+1" (Next 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, to 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 percent coming from rural callers.[5]

The first year of The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange's existence is documented in the PBS Wide Angle film The Market Maker.

References

  1. ↑ "Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Authority Proclamation", Negarit Gazeta (accessed 12 November 2010)
  2. ↑ http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/oc70.pdf
  3. ↑ "Ethiopia Commodity Exchange: Operations" (accessed 12 November 2010)
  4. ↑ http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/oc70.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/oc70.pdf

External links