Injera exports have garnered 28 million dollars in the past eight months, according to Minster of Industry Melaku Alebel. He addressed the Parliament last week at the 14th regular session of its second-year term. The performance report comes in a year at which the price of Teff reached an all-time high, hovering close to 10,000 Br. The unprecedented increment in the price resulted from logistic hurdles arising from security tensions between the Amhara and Oromia regional states. While the skyrocketing cost of Teff has many locals opting to decrease their consumption, injera is reaching new markets abroad. Bedlwa Habtemariam, who has been exporting Injera in large quantities for the better part of a decade through her 23 employees, says there is a huge untapped market for the staple food abroad. A quintal of Teff yields close to 800 pieces of Injera and is sold at prices depending on the quantity of order, quality of the injera and shipping costs with the United States being the number one importer. "We would not have earned as much if we had exported Teff," the Minister emphasised the role of value addition in increasing the productivity of the manufacturing export sector.

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