Investors Advised to Fill Market Gap in Ethiopia’s Glassware Manufacturing

As a country, Ethiopia has an annual demand for 265 million glass bottles. However, it is estimated that the handful of glass factories currently operating in the country are able to produce only about 25 percent of this demand.

To meet the remaining demand, the country spends more than 170 million dollars annually importing glass products such as float glass (building glass), bottles, and pharmaceutical packaging materials. In this regard, the Development Bank of Ethiopia is coming forward with a new and large-scale project.

According to Mr. Getachew Fentaw, the Bank’s Vice President for Small and Medium Enterprise Financing and Branch Banking, filling market gaps in a well-studied and productive manner is one of the Development Bank’s core principles. In particular, the Bank has financed the “Dede Bottle Factory,” which addresses the demand-and-supply gap in the glass manufacturing sector.

Ethiopia is endowed with raw materials required for glass production, including quartz sand, limestone, and dolomite. The factory, built in Debre Birhan City, extensively uses limestone from the Kelemi area among these raw materials. This also contributes to the development and growth of limestone mining.

This means that the project fulfills the Development Bank’s firm vision of using locally available raw materials, replacing imported products, saving foreign currency, and producing value-added products, the Vice President emphasized. Creating employment opportunities and generating additional revenue through taxes is another contribution expected from the factory.

Mr. Getachew said that the Development Bank is financing investments of this kind and stated that the factory, which is currently undergoing machinery testing, will soon begin production.

The factory has already established a market linkage with a major manufacturing company. Dede Bottle Factory primarily produces bottles used for food packaging. The factory has a production capacity of up to 450,000 bottles per day. At present, it has created permanent employment for 300 citizens and temporary employment for another 100.

Ethiopia’s container glass and bottle manufacturing sector is undergoing a rapid, state-backed transformation to bridge a massive domestic supply deficit. The market is experiencing an aggressive growth trajectory, with projections from MarkWide Research indicating it will surge from $187.4 million to $393.77 million by 2035. Historically, local manufacturing plants could only satisfy about 25% to 30% of the nationwide demand. This chronic shortfall forced the country to expend vital foreign currency on roughly $69.2 million in glass imports annually to feed its burgeoning beverage and pharmaceutical industries.

Industrial expansion is now shifting the market from import dependency toward self-sufficiency. Heavy state capitalization and private investments are unlocking massive domestic capacity. A key driver of this shift is the newly operational Dede Bottle Factory PLC in Debre Berhan, which has injected 450,000 daily bottle units into the market. Crucially, these modern facilities are leveraging localized supply chains. Factories source up to 90% of their primary raw materials—such as silica sand and limestone—directly from rich domestic deposits, insulating the sector from global logistical shocks.

The primary catalyst for this industrial boom is the relentless expansion of Ethiopia’s commercial beverage and pharmaceutical sectors. Major international and domestic breweries, premium wineries, and water bottling companies command the largest share of glass packaging. Additionally, the development of specialized hubs like the Kilinto Industrial Park has heightened demand for UV-protective amber glass for medical formulations. Backed by aggressive import-substitution financing from the Development Bank of Ethiopia and powered by cheap hydro-electric energy, the sector is positionining itself to become a key exporter of glass containers to the wider East African region.

The Development Bank of Ethiopia, which provides 70 percent of the factory’s financing, conducted a field inspection by visiting the factory and is providing appropriate work and construction supervision, evaluation, and technical support.