The Role of Diplomacy in Increasing the Value of Ethiopian Export Products with Special Reference to Cut Flower Products

This study tried to find the main impacts of diplomacy on Ethiopian cut flower export following its poor performance. The researcher correlates the export incentive to cut flower export and finally identifies the challenges of the cut flower export sub-sector. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. Based on the analysis, the researcher identified low flower investment social acceptability, high competition from other partnering countries, low land and property compensation makes the sector perform poorly. The result also showed that diplomatic relations during the PP regime have significantly reduced the export of cut flowers relative to the EPRDF regime. The diplomatic relation during PP makes the export of cut flowers fall by 28.4% relative to the EPRDF regime. High export incentive has capacity to increase cut flower export by 23.4% relative to low export incentive scenario. Based on the finding, the researcher recommends the government improve its diplomatic relations with its main importing western countries. In addition, the export incentive has to be encouraged to make the sector more productive