The Ministry of Trade & Regional Integration has issued a stern warning to exporters to immediately ship tens of thousands of tonnes of cash crops its officials say have been found stored with them or face potential confiscation. Sesame accounts for over a quarter of the volume.

Ministry officials say they discovered 60,000tn in cash crops at warehouses in 105 exporters' possessions following investigations in Adama town, Oromia Regional State, Addis Abeba, and its surroundings. Exporters sourced the commodities through contract farming, investment, vertical integration, and the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) to ship abroad but sat on the cash crops.

The deadline the Ministry set for exporters to sell cash crops acquired through vertical integration – labelled "illegal" for trade in anything other than coffee – using the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) passed last week.

“If any crops are found, they'll be confiscated,” warns Mesfin Abebe, director of agricultural product export trade at the Ministry. Exporters who sourced the commodities legally have been given until the end of the financial year to register them.

Mefin suspects more warehouses are hoarding and illicitly acquired crops.

"We'll conduct further investigations soon," he said.

The crackdown comes as the government scrambles for foreign currency to deal with troubling imbalances and deficits. Over the past decade, the export of oilseeds such as sesame has seen volumes decline by eight percent annually. Oilseeds are among the top foreign currency earners, accounting for nearly 12pc of the 3.6 billion dollars in export revenues last year. The import bill registered 14 billion dollars, resulting in a negative trade balance of 10.4 billion dollars.

Over the first six months, exports generated 1.9 billion dollars, 20pc higher than the same period last year. Close to 70pc of the revenues was obtained from exporting agricultural commodities such as coffee, sesame, khat and oilseeds.

“The commodities [found in the warehouses] should be exported to generate hard currency for the country,” said Mesfin.

Calculated based on a minimum price set at 1,685 dollars a tonne, the cash crops could potentially translate to over 100 million dollars in export revenues. Officials say they follow up with the exporters to help ship the commodities out.

“Almost half of the exporters have begun the process,” said the Director.

Anley Alemu Import & Export is among the companies that received the notice last week. The Ministry alleges the company had 75tn of mung bean, 33.7tn of white kidney beans, and 63tn of red kidney beans at its warehouse in Addis Abeba. Anley, a major shareholder, says sluggish demand in the international market was behind the decision to store the cash crops. Incorporated in 1994, the company is engaged in commodity trade and the freight cargo business.