Ethiopia’s direct-sales market for coping with inflation gets positive responses

The direct-sales market scheme launched by the Ethiopian government on Oct 31 to cope with high rocketing food inflation has been well received by both manufacturers and consumers.

The over one-year civil conflict greatly pulled up inflation in Ethiopia.

According to data released by the Ethiopian Central Bureau of Statistics, the country’s general inflation rate reached 37% in October.

To ease the burden of local low-income families, the municipal government in the capital city of Addis Ababa set up many temporary direct-sales markets designed to open every Sunday, namely “Sunday market,” to stabilize society, reduce the cost of living and the bad market chain.

“In fact, we have enough products. The reason for market supply shortfall is the interference of intermediaries. In the past, farmers can only reach to customers through intermediaries. In that case, the price of onions surged to 54 birr (around 1.13 U.S. dollars) per kilogram while now we directly sell them to customers only at 18 birr (around 38%) per kilogram,” said a local farmer who was onion vendor at the market.

In Ethiopia, local residents earned 3,000 to 4,000 birr (around 63.03 to 84.04 U.S. dollars) one month. The establishment of the direct-sales markets has indeed greatly eased the financial burden of some people.

“The Sunday market is really important to people. First, those who are too busy to do shopping on workdays have more choices in purchasing. Second, people spend less in food because it is basically very cheap here, around five to 10 birr (around 11 cents to 21 cents) per kilogram,” said a local resident.

The over the one-year civil conflict between the Ethiopian government and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), across Ethiopia’s northern regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar, dates back to November 2020.

Due to the expansion and intensification of military clashes in northern Ethiopia, the government announced on Nov 2 it would implement a six-month state of emergency nationwide.