...and of all places, it's coming from (wait for it).... ETHIOPIA

Yep, that's right. Ethiopia.

They are (this month) opening the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (Free market), primarily for grains and Ag products. Modeled after our own Chicago Board of Trade.

These Commodity Exchanges exist in places like India, China, & much of South America. But only South Africa has one in the entire African continent.

The biggest benefit to a place like Ethiopia with having a Commodity Exchange is that farmers (producers) can get broader access to markets than just their local market down the road.

The other part of this is that Ethiopia has spend a fair piece of change (for them) to build up a network of grain storage facilities, where farmers can store grain until ready to sell. This substantially reduces the "boom or bust" issues with crop production, because they no longer have to rush to sell everything.

Link

Another Article

Don't know if it will work or not, seeing how we've had occasional periods of rocky agricultural history in the markets right here in the US. But truth of the matter is, that in Ethiopia, they would be hard pressed to do worse than they have done in the past - so more power to them for trying something different.

If it's successful, more than just Ethiopia will benefit. Egypt might be the real major beneficiary of this.