Ethiopia's export economy shifts towards high-value sectors, with gold and coffee leading growth

Over the Ethiopian Fiscal Years 2014 to 2018 2021/22–2025/26, the country's cumulative exports reached 31.04 billion USD, with annual export receipts surging by 171.84 percent to 11.20 billion USD by EFY 2018. While agriculture historically dominated, contributing 56 percent of total cumulative revenues 17.31 billion USD, the mining sector emerged as a powerful engine, accounting for 34 percent 10.42 billion USD. Manufacturing contributed 7 percent 2.13 billion USD, and electric power sales and miscellaneous exports made up the remaining 3.8 percent 1.18 billion USD.

Gold exports, in particular, saw extraordinary growth, generating 10.30 billion USD out of the mining sector's total cumulative revenue. By EFY 2018, annual gold revenues exploded by 924.07 percent to 5.71 billion USD, becoming the majority of single-year national export earnings. In contrast, floriculture, despite generating 2.48 billion USD cumulatively, faced challenges, with annual earnings dipping to 412.29 million USD in EFY 2018 due to various factors.

Coffee remained the central engine of the agricultural sector, with exports reaching 9.98 billion USD over the five-year period, expanding to 3.13 billion USD in EFY 2018. Manufacturing also saw notable developments, especially in clean-energy engineering, where solar technology production exports increased