Water and soft drink bottlers are complaining about the revised excise tax rate a topic that has fostered much discussion over the past couple of months.

The new way of calculating the tax is expected to be approved by parliament this week. When that happens, excise tax will be deducted from sales or revenue instead of from production as is currently the case.

December 7 , 2019
By GELILA SAMUEL( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )

Out of a total of 80 bottled water companies in Ethiopia, 14 of them bottle mineral water that now has to comply to new standards.

Fourteen mineral water bottlers are required to double the volume of the total fortified minerals in their products within six months.
Approved by the National Standardisation Council on July 15, 2019, the new standard will be enforced by the Ethiopian Standards Agency. The Agency gave the bottlers a half-year grace period to comply with the standard that mandates them to add the concentration of dissolved substances into their products

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              November 25, 2019

The Ethiopian Fruits and Vegetable Processing Manufacturing Industries Association has officially merged With the Ethiopian Bottled Water and Soft drink Manufacturing Industries Association.

After serious of discussions among the two Association’s Board of Directors, it finally endorsed by its respective General Assemblies, FDRE Ministry of Trade and Industry finally registered the merged Association namely the Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft drink, Fruits and Vegetable Processing /Manufacturing Industries Association (EBSFMIA).

The Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft drink, Fruits and Vegetable Processing / Manufacturing Industries Association (EBSFMIA) was held a validation workshop on the 5 years strategic plan of the Association, dated November 20, 2019 at Kaleb Hotel. Stakeholders coming from government, members, donors and journalists were attended. Pertinent discussion was made; comments and ideas were raised to enrich the 5 years strategic plan (2020-2024) of the Association.
The strategic plan was sponsored by Enterprise Partners (EP).

With the support of Nestlé Waters Ethiopia, Coca-Cola Beverage Africa, and 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG), the EBSFMIA has won the Partnership for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 (P4G) 2019 Start-Up Partnership Award, which recognizes new partnerships deemed to have exceptional potential for advancing social, environmental, and economic progress. The award includes a funding of USD 100,000, which the Association together with its partners plans to use to establish an Ethiopian Beverage Alliance for Water to promote collective action for sustainable water resources management amongst beverage industry actors, government, and communities.

https://www.ebsfmia.org/images/news/Aug-7-2019/ New_letter_from_the__institute.pdf