27/10/2025
On 16 October, Ethiopia marked World Food Day with the usual fanfare: speeches from ministers, pledges of transformation, and a showcase of agricultural promise staged in the capital. Beneath a banner proclaiming “Water is Life, Water is Food,” officials extolled the virtues of resilience, equity, and local empowerment. The Agriculture Minister, Girma Amente, called for a “paradigm shift” in food systems, urging investment in climate-smart farming and reduced dependency on imports. The message was one of progress, sovereignty, and self-reliance. But beyond the stage-managed optimism, a different Ethiopia simmers, one where food prices have doubled, conflict has gutted rural economies, and millions face hunger not as a seasonal hardship but as a structural condition. The contrast between the government’s narrative and the country’s lived reality is not merely stark, it is indicting.
In Addis Ababa’s sprawling Merkato, the largest open-air market in Africa, traders speak of a transformation of a different kind: the vanishing of the middle class. A kilo of teff, Ethiopia’s staple grain, has surged from 40 birr to 90 in under a year. Lentils, once a modest protein source, are now priced out of reach for many. Cooking oil, onions, wheat flour, each has become a symbol of scarcity. The Central Statistics Agency reports year-on-year food inflation hovering above 30%, with no signs of abating. Currency devaluation, fuel shortages, and global supply shocks have all played their part, but for ordinary citizens, the effect is singular: hunger. “World Food Day?” scoffs Tesfaye, a minibus driver. “They should call it World Queue Day. We queue for bread, for fuel, for everything.”
Read more:- https://ethiopiantribune.com/2025/10/ethiopian-hunger/