Ethiopia’s exports in the first quarter of the fiscal year have lowered by 5.9 million dollars from the same period last year. Ministry of Trade & Regional Integration announced that it had collected 959.7 million dollars from oil seeds, crops, khat, livestock, and incense exports in the first quarter. This amounts to 86pc of the 1.12 billion dollars target set by its officials. They attributed the drop in the value of exports to production fall and quality concerns of commodities such as peanuts. They also blamed contraband trade crossing the borders and alleged hoarding of the products. Sesame ranked first in oil seed exports. Israel, a significant consumer of sesame products, imported 85,000tns, which accounts for over 14.6 million dollars. Singapore and UAE follow, accounting for 8.2 million dollars and eight million dollars in export revenues, respectively. Ethiopia expects to generate over 3.33 billion dollars from exports this year. Last year brought a record high of over four billion dollars, mainly due to a coffee exports boost.