The rise of an organic market in Addis Ababa

The demand for organic products, mainly vegetables, is increasing in the Addis Ababa Market. As the market grows, fulfilling the demand is becoming a challenge for smallholder organic farmers and few private farms which are striving to meet consumers' demands. Another challenge for organic vegetables producers and consumers is the lack of proper market linkages. The widely used market outlets for organic vegetables in and around Addis are (i) few youth purchasing vegetables from smallholder farmers and other private farms for basket delivery to consumers (ii) basket delivery scheme by few private farms (iii) bi-monthly organic vegetables market day in Addis managed by organised smallholder farmers.

Despite the motivating starts, there is an unproportioned growth in the marked demand and the production of organic vegetables. The amount of organic vegetables the farmers bring to the organic market in Addis is so small that there are times the consumers didn’t get vegetables left at all – unless they come early. It only takes a few hours for farmers to finish selling their organic vegetables. This is a clear indicator that more producers are needed to meet the market demands.

Farmers use local measures for vegetables like Swiss Chard and Lettuce instead of metric measurements (gram, Kilogram) which is a similar practice in the city’s largest vegetable market. For vegetables like carrots, onion, beetroot, potato, green beans, etc.; they use metric measurements. Price they received per local measure and/or per Kg of vegetables is 20-30% higher than the local market –price of conventionally grown vegetables.

Smallholders farmer at the organic market place in Addis Ababa; Credit PAN-Ethiopia.

Basket delivery is another scheme which seems a potential area to expand the organic market. An organic horticulture project supported by a Swiss-based NGO called Green Flower Foundation started a basket delivery about a year ago and its customers in Addis are increasing from time to time. They created a WhatsApp account to send out a list of vegetables that can be added to the basket so that consumers can put their orders and physical addresses for delivery. The platform has now over 70 members and they receive the delivery once a week.

Basket of vegetables ready for delivery; Credit, GFF.

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