Established in 2002, the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) is a business membership organisation comprising producer exporters of flowers, cuttings, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and hybrid seeds. It is one of the strongest sectoral associations in the country, providing structured and proactive support to enhance sectoral competitiveness and assist its members. EHPEA has a membership base of 126 companies, with 45% belonging to the vegetable sub-sector. Currently, 31 of these vegetable farms are focused on export. New companies are emerging to invest in vegetable farming in Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, South and Central Ethiopia (EHPEA’s operating areas), driven by the expansion of irrigation infrastructure in those areas. The number of companies is expected to rise by 10% to 20% in the next two years.

With a staff of 30 (ten women), EHPEA offers evidence-based policy advocacy, tailored capacity building, investment promotion, market access and promotion, and support for accessing funding and grants to enhance business competitiveness, sustainability, and market demand. The Association generates revenue through member contributions, income from training programmes, and grants received from various projects. Member contributions form a foundational aspect of EHPEA’s funding, reflecting the commitment and investment of its members.

EHPEA promotes the sustainable growth of the private sector in horticulture production and export businesses. It supports its members in staying competitive in the market by building the capacity of farms to comply with Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). EHPEA offers a range of training programmes aimed at enhancing the skills and knowledge of its members, with the income generated from these programmes contributing to its revenue. EHPEA trains farmers directly through their cooperatives or provides TOT (training of trainers) to staff, enabling them to cascade the training to their members.

Upon request, EHPEA’s certified experts conduct comprehensive gap assessments to identify capacity, infrastructure, and documentation needs and develop tailored action plans. A dedicated Global GAP team comprising 10-15 experts from both the association and the company is established. EHPEA’s experts provide a minimum of four training sessions and offer hands-on support with facility set-up and documentation processes until farmers are fully prepared for certification. This end-to-end support for Global GAP certification is offered at a rate of 100 euros per hectare.

Contact: Mr Tewodros Zewdie (photo) Email Email

Develop and Popularise Local GAP to Ensure Safe Vegetable Access and Improve Smallholder Income

The project demonstrated the technical, commercial, and institutional feasibility of a local GAP practice for safe vegetable production in Ethiopia. It sought to demonstrate this to smallholder farmers, local buyers, sector regulators and private-sector associations, showing that food safety, climate-smart practices, and inclusive market access can be achieved simultaneously at scale. The purpose was to generate practical evidence and a viable business case that local GAP can improve farmer incomes, strengthen climate resilience, enhance domestic vegetable market competitiveness, and ensure safety for domestic consumption, increasing consumer access to safe vegetables, while informing policy adoption, crowding in private investment and enabling replication beyond the pilot phase.

The CASA partnership with EHPEA (December 2024 – December 2025) had a total cost of £130,840. Of this, CASA’s support was £76,465 (58%), which included technical assistance and a grant that helped design a cooperative-based business model that links local GAP certified smallholder vegetable producers directly with premium markets, supported by branding, consumer awareness, and policy incentives to promote safe and traceable produce. The technical assistance helped EHPEA adapt Global GAP guidelines to develop a local “Ethio-GAP” protocol and guidelines, and addressed vegetable safety issues to create business opportunities for members. It also helped EHPEA address sectoral issues affecting effective and sustainable production and consumption ,and provided demand-based technical assistance to improve producers’ adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change.

Activities included mapping and profiling segmented buyers of safe fruits and vegetables including hotels, supermarkets, and institutional buyers – in Addis Ababa and other major towns – and strengthening national capacity for local auditing through a four-day Ethio-GAP auditing skills training delivered to 28 professionals from MoA, EAA, and EHPEA.

Through this collaboration, EHPEA aimed to co-create a business model with localised GAP that includes climate resilience and adaptation practices, initially piloting the training of 153 out of 2,000 farmers to produce safe certified vegetables, building trust and relationships with farmers, and facilitating market linkages. By adopting Global and/or Ethio-GAP, smallholder farmers can reduce the negative influence on the environment (i.e., curb inappropriate use of pesticides and instead use Integrated Pest Management [IPM] practices) and earn better incomes, becoming more resilient to cope with potential shocks.

The partnership leveraged the Horti Flora Expo 2025 to promote the initiative, attract sector actors, and facilitate market access for certified products. This involves farmers producing and supplying safe vegetables using an Ethio-GAP standard tailored for the domestic market. EHPEA will continue to promote safety assurance standards (Ethio-GAP) for its members, leading to integrated farm assurance (IFA) and Global GAP certification through certifying bodies. This initiative allows companies to sell their products regionally, locally and for export. Additionally, EHPEA will advocate for a public sector safety standard for the local market, involving the development and endorsement of Ethio-GAP by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Agriculture Authority will certify producers for Ethio-GAP, preparing them to meet international demand for safe agricultural products.

The development of Ethio-GAP presents and takes advantage of several opportunities:

• Growing national demand for safe and certified produce: Rising consumer awareness and demand for safe fruits and vegetables in domestic markets created strong momentum for the Ethio-GAP initiative. This demand reinforced the relevance of the certification framework and strengthened stakeholder interest in improving food safety and traceability.
• Improved competitiveness in the context of global trade: The Ethio-GAP initiative provides a pathway for Ethiopian producers to gradually align with international quality and safety standards. This is particularly relevant as Ethiopia advances toward World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, where compliance with recognised production and quality standards will enhance market competitiveness.
• Strong government buy-in: Support from ministerial offices elevated the Ethio-GAP initiative from a sector-led intervention to a strategic national initiative. This high-level endorsement creates the opportunity for broader adoption, stronger institutional coordination, and greater long-term impact on the horticulture sector and the national economy.

In response to these dynamics, EHPEA expanded stakeholder engagement, strengthened partnerships, mobilised additional resources and adjusted the implementation approach to ensure that the Ethio-GAP standard is technically sound, nationally owned, and positioned for sustainable scaling.

As a next step toward finalising and scaling the standard, EHPEA has partnered with SNV and organised an experience-exchange visit to Ghana to learn from similar initiatives and further refine the Ethio-GAP framework to better serve local producers and consumers across broader geographic contexts.

Recommendations

For EHPEA: To take the Ethio-GAP initiative to the next level, EHPEA should:

• Finalise national endorsement and launch the standard through continued engagement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ethiopian Agriculture Authority
• Scale certification pilots through cooperatives and farmer organisations, using the cooperative-based aggregation model developed during the project
• Strengthen domestic demand creation, including branding, consumer awareness campaigns, and partnerships with supermarkets, hotels, and institutional buyers
• Expand national auditing capacity by training additional auditors and certification bodies, and
• Integrate Ethio-GAP into EHPEA’s long-term fee-based service model to ensure financial sustainability.

For other agribusinesses or sector actors interested in similar initiatives: Organisations developing local certification systems should:

• Engage government regulators early to ensure policy alignment and reduce approval delays
• Allocate sufficient time for consultation, piloting, and revision of standards
• Build market demand simultaneously with supply-side certification to ensure farmer adoption, and
• Invest in capacity building for certification bodies, auditors, and extension services.

For investors, development partners or financial institutions: Supporting Ethio-GAP and similar initiatives will require:

• Investment in capacity development for certification, auditing, and compliance systems
• Support for market development and consumer awareness of food safety standards
• Financing models that enable smallholders and cooperatives to meet certification requirements, and
• Recognition that certification systems require longer investment horizons due to regulatory approval processes and market development needs.

Updated: March 2026