The company with the first private duty free shop in Ethiopia, Al-Farag Trading Plc, is to open its second duty free shop in the Bole International Airport terminal. A second private company, Country Trading, is also going to open its first shop in the terminal.  A-farag’s new shop is to be opened on November 15, 2006.
 

Al-Farag rented a 480sqm room located alongside the departure section for a monthly price of 2,500 Br per square metre in September from the Airports Administration Enterprise. The shop will retain the former name “Al-Farag Addis Ababa Duty Free Shop.” The company opened the first private duty free shop in the country in the same terminal in 2003.
 

Al-Farag imported materials and hired 14 skilled people from the Italian company Giban for the store opening, with Italians working on designing and decorating for a month. Owner of the company, Ayidrus H. Farag, told Fortune that the decoration work of the new shop consumed one million dollars; half a million less than what it took to decorate the first 700sqm shop.
 

Al-Farag was established in 1932 by the Al-Farag family. It imports stationary, sports items, luxury goods, consumer products, food stuffs, perfumes and cosmetic products. It also imports household items.
 

“Anyone who has watched the way the two big duty free shops were constructed would not be sceptical of the amount of money put into them,” said Beniam Berhane, manager of Country Trading plc. Country Trading is already in preparations to open its first duty free shop in the terminal.
 

The  “Millennium Duty Free Shop”, as the shop will come to be known, is currently being designed. Country trading expects a total cost of three million birr until the 58.72sqm shop opens. 
 

The company has already imported what is called “Srbilsind”, a French-made scan system that reads the boarding pass given to departing passengers by Ethiopian Airlines, enforcing the rule that only departing passengers have the right to use these shops. The system accepts Euro, Draham, US Dollar and Birr. 
 

Country Trading was established 14 years ago by Benyam Brehane and his mother Amelesha G. Selassie. The company imports Russian vodka, Red Bull, and Akira electronics. They also import Porook water drilling machines. They export sugar, molasses, and sesame, and manufacture nails and galvanised corrugated roofs.
 

Nowadays, there are three duty free shops in the terminal – the two Al-Faraj shops and a shop owned by the Ethiopian Tourist Trading Enterprise (ETTE) which had the monopoly over duty free trade for over 30 years. The Millennium shop will raise the number to four.
 

ETTE’s monopoly came to an end in 2003 when Girma Birru, the Trade and Industry minister, declared that the sector is open for all who have import licence and retail trade licenses. Although the ETTE and other lawyers still argue that the 1993 establishment proclamation of the Enterprise gave it monopoly power over duty free trade, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), along with private lawyers, counter with a claim that the proclamation does not have an article that prohibits others from engaging in the sector.

“It is not appropriate to confine private duty free trade in the airport terminal,” said a senior MoTI official. He then mentioned plans to extend the trade to the big hotels in town to serve tourists. Such a move, he pointed out, would require the Ethiopian Customs Authority (ECA)to have the capacity to control duty free trade to only those who have the privilege.