The National Disaster Risk Management Commission is searching for transporters to ferry six million quintals of wheat from the Port of Djibouti to various drought-affected distribution centres around the country.

Nearly two-thirds of the wheat will be distributed to the approximately 8.5 million people affected by drought and displacement, while the remaining six million quintals of wheat will be held in reserve in eight different regional warehouses in Adama, Kombolcha, Shinile, Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Woreta, Wolayita and Meqelle. The Adama warehouse will receive one-third of the supply, and Dire Dawa will hold 203,500ql.

The Commission floated a tender at the beginning of this month to hire companies to transport the commodity under the management of and oversight of the recently formed National Transport Committee. The Committee is composed of members from the Ministry of Transport, Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise, Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service and the Commission.

The committee will regulate the move and ensure that inconveniences on other imported goods transported from the port are avoided, according to Haydrus  Hassan, director of logistics and supply at the Commission.

The operation is expected to be completed in October, and the Commission plans to ferry 80,000ql to 120,000ql of wheat a day.

“To transport this quantity," Haydrus said, "we have to deploy 200 to 300 trucks with a loading capacity of 400ql a day."

The country has a total of 217,351 dry cargo trucks and trailers, of which 168,658 are trucks with trailers with more 10ql of capacity, and 48,693 trucks have less than 10ql of loading capacity.

Currently, the Commission is transporting 200,000ql of wheat from Djibouti to the warehouses. The procurement and logistics of this batch of the consignment are made and facilitated by the World Food Programme, and 60,000ql of it has already arrived at warehouses.