EU pledges support for “immediate” local food purchases

The European Union (EU) has donated 40 million euros (about US $35 million) to purchase emergency relief grain locally for drought-relief operations and to support the country’s food security programmes, AP reported on 27 July. An agreement releasing the funds was signed on 26 July by Kaarl Harbo, head of the EU delegation to Ethiopia, the vice-minister of the Economic Cooperation and Development Ministry, Mekonen Manyazewal, and the head of the Federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), Simon Mechale. Harbo is quoted by AP as telling a news conference after the signing ceremony that 27.5 million euros (about US $24 million) of the pledge will be used by the DPPC to “purchase immediately 110,000 mt of relief food and to distribute it as soon as possible”. The balance of 12.5 million euros (about US $11 million) will be used to improve integrated food security programmes in the Amhara and Tigray regional states and for capacity building at the federal and regional levels. The EU has also committed 25,000 mt of food aid to be distributed through the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and another 25,000 mt through NGOs. Harbo told reporters that while there was more than 500,000 mt of cereals available for purchase in Ethiopian markets because of the good harvest last year, people in the northern, eastern and southern parts of the country were still in need of emergency assistance until the end of the year. Simon Mechale said the EU grant would enhance Ethiopia’s foreign exchange reserves, and purchasing the food aid locally would help stabilise low agricultural prices in the country. On 19 July, the DPPC issued a warning that while relief needs in the country were growing it was facing an acute shortage of food resources. In a letter to UN agencies and donors, the DPPC said that 50,000 to 60,000 mt of emergency food aid would be needed from July onwards. The warning came only days after the WFP had alerted donors to a 40 percent shortfall in its requirement for 202,000 mt of drought relief food for the year.