Assessment of the Level of Performance, Challenges and Prospects of Export Trade in Ethiopia: A Management Perspective

Abstract

This study tries to assess the level of performance, challenges and prospects of the Ethiopian export trade from the management point of view and to investigate the performance of the export operation in a systematical approach. With the emergence of globalization and liberalization, barriers to cross border for business are becoming so diminished. Globalization, a trend toward a more integrated and global economic system, is a challenge that countries have to learn how to live with it, manage it and take advantage of its opportunities since national economies are becoming more interdependent and integrated. In addition, today’s theories of economic development emphasize improving export performance as a vital component to international competitiveness and rapid growth and development. Hence, the modern credo of economic development became ‘export or perish’. The main problem that this study tries to address is why the Ethiopian export trade performance is unsatisfactory in spite of its long time entrance into the international market and the paradox that Ethiopia has a capable labor force, low wage rate, a wide range of weather and soil conditions, and preferential access to major world markets. The objective is to assess the level of performance, to identify the main challenges and potentials and to suggest possible remedial actions in relation to export trade. The methodology used includes survey, interviews and document review. The scope of the study covers those stakeholders having active participation in the sector and its limitation is that it is not exhaustive in terms of data sources and variables of analysis. The study is believed to benefit those stakeholders in the export sector to see their weaknesses and strengths. Literatures on both theoretical and empirical aspects have been reviewed. Quality problems, inefficient management of exporters, inefficient promotion of the export sector, and low performance of export processing are the main findings of the study.Accordingly, conclusions and recommendations have been made focusing on improvements to be made on quality, exporters’ capacity, export promotion and export processing in order to improve the performance of Ethiopian export trade.