Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the most interesting industrial markets in Africa and one of the most procedural to supply. Nearly everything EMM ships lands at Djibouti and moves 800 km by road or rail to Addis Ababa or on to Adama, Hawassa, Dire Dawa or Bahir Dar. The logistics are well worn and reliable. The banking side needs patience: imports are letter-of-credit based and foreign currency allocation can put real time between an agreed order and an opened credit, so we quote with validity periods that reflect that rather than pretending otherwise.

Where the equipment goes

The industrial parks - Hawassa, Bole Lemi, Adama, Kombolcha, Mekelle - were built around textiles and apparel, and sewing, cutting, spreading, dyeing, finishing and packing machinery remains a large part of what we send. Leather and footwear in Modjo and Addis buy tanning drums, splitting, buffing and sole-moulding plant. Coffee is the other pillar: hulling, grading, density separation and colour sorting for exporters in Addis, Jimma and Yirgalem. Agro-processing takes oilseed expellers, flour and pasta plant, sugar handling equipment and cold chain. Cement, steel rolling and construction materials around Addis and Dire Dawa buy crushing, conveying, bagging and bar-processing equipment.

Documentation and site conditions

A conformity certificate against Ethiopian standards is normally required, and we arrange the assessment in China so the certificate travels with the documents. Standard supply is 380 V three phase and 220 V single phase, 50 Hz. Addis sits at about 2,350 m and much of the highland industrial belt is above 1,500 m, which derates diesel engines and compressors noticeably - we size for the actual site altitude as standard, because a unit specified at sea level will quietly underperform here for its whole life.

Send us your specification and the park or town it is destined for and we will quote CIF Djibouti and delivered Addis separately so you can see the two costs.