Mysterious Wheat Deals Complicate Hunger Fight in Ethiopia
- Nation scrapped import tenders for grain after no progress
- Ethiopia is seeking outside assistance to help feed its people
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Back in November, Ethiopia unveiled two deals to buy deeply discounted wheat from suppliers that seasoned traders had never heard of. A website named for one of the companies listed a German address that didn’t exist and appeared to use stock photos of models.
Two months on, it remains a mystery who was behind the deals or what their motivation was, especially as Ethiopia says it hasn’t lost any money. One thing is clear though: no wheat has been delivered. The government has now canceled the tenders and plans to start over.