UNIDO launched the Global Market Access Programme country project in Ethiopia
VIENNA, 24 October 2023 - UNIDO launched the Global Market Access Programme (GMAP) country project in Addis Ababa together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration of Ethiopian and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in the country, witnessed by over sixty representatives from Ethiopia and international communities. It initiated the implementation of a €1.8 million project funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) which aims to support the efforts by various public and private stakeholders in Ethiopia to strengthen quality compliance capacity and improve market access in the honey and beeswax value chain.
“The project is built on efforts by multiple partners at national and international level, with the aim to scale up for long-term benefits. While complementing to endeavor in improving productivity, the GMAP Ethiopia project is focusing on quality through strengthening SMEs capacity to comply with trade standards and market requirements,” said by Ms. Aurelia Patrizia Calabrò, UNIDO Representative and Director, UNIDO Regional Office Hub in Ethiopia in her welcoming remarks. She released the Value Chain Study Report and appreciated the support given by the Norwegian Government, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and all other stakeholders, which is key to accelerate successful implementation of the project.
“Ethiopia is one of the focused countries for the implementation of this strategy in development cooperation, and Norway is committed to partnering with Ethiopia on this journey to strengthen the quality compliance capacity of the honey value chain for a greater market access”, Mr. Stian Christensen, Ambassador of Norway to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative of Norway to the African Union recalled the Great Transformation Norway had experienced during the past century and explained the Norwegian strategy for supporting food security in Africa through addressing the root causes of food insecurity and building partner countries capacity to respond to natural and social barriers.
“This project aims to address the identified gaps in the sector preventing Ethiopia from realizing its potential of honey exportation, while also supporting in meeting the international market requirements, particularly those in the European market. Let our partners work together as the bee to solve the sector problem and come up with good results. Bees are more than half million but they unites to produce greater products for all people in the world”, Dr Fikru Regassa, State Minister of Agriculture said at the event and expressed his appreciation for the Value Chain Study Reported produced by UNIDO.
The county project in Ethiopia “Strengthening the quality compliance capacity of the honey value chain for greater market access” is part of the GMAP Programme, a programmatic framework developed by UNIDO and NORAD in order to support market access for developing countries for selected value chains through addressing quality-related and other barriers at the macro, meso and micro levels.
The project aims to enhance the quality compliance capacity of honey and beeswax value chain actors from the bottom and strengthen the service capacity of National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) system in Ethiopia for providing internationally recognized services. In addition, the project will also support in promoting the culture for quality along the value chain which is vital for creating a virtuous cycle of more investment, more production, more exports, and finally more jobs.
The project will be implemented in close collaboration with various partners including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, NQI institutions, the Holeta Bee Research Center, the newly established Ethiopian Apiculture Development Association (EADA), and Oromia Bureau of Agriculture.
For more information, please contact:
Mr. Cong WU
