The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced that it has auctioned 92 ECX membership seats with over 123 million Birr.

CEO of ECX Dr. Eleni Gebre Medhin said here on Thursday that limited members engaged in haricott bean and sesame products and also new members took part in the auction.

The membership seat is permanent, which has market right to sell, change or transfer in inheritance.

The number of members is limited with a view to making the market system fair.

She said when ECX had begun operation the number of founding members was 100. The cost for membership seat was fixed to 50,000 Birr at that time.

The price for a membership seat has now reached 1.3 million Birr, a growth by 27 fold compared to that of the previous cost.

ECX had one warehouse and 67 permanent employees in Addis Ababa City when it first began operation, now it has 55 warehouses and more than 600 permanent employees in 17 different areas in the country, she said. --ENA