Commodity Markets For Africa's Horn

To help push its agricultural sector into the electronic age, Ethiopia opened its first commodities trading floor on Apr. 24. Armed with advice (and videos) from the Chicago Board of Trade, a group of U.S.-trained émigrés has returned to Addis Ababa to run the Ethiopia Commodities Exchange. The goal: to improve food marketing in the famine-prone country—a system described as “backwards and not transparent” by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Moving a sack of grain across Ethiopia now involves six middlemen, says the exchange’s director, Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a former World Bank economist. Trading in corn and beans on opening day reached 200 tons (with brokers grinning as they mimicked the feverish gestures of CBOT traders). Other commodities, and futures trading, will be added next year. The exchange, which provides real-time pricing to farmers, will also grade and store grain in warehouses, with labs set up with the help of U.S.-trained inspectors. –Jason McLure in Addis Ababa