Slideshow: On the Trading Floor
The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange operates on an “open outcry” system, which means that buyers and sellers negotiate publicly and simultaneously on the trading floor during designated hours. The system is meant to provide transparency, but the scene can look confusing to an outsider. More
Eleni Gabre-Madhin is a woman with a dream. The charismatic Ethiopian economist wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. But rather than relying on foreign aid or new agricultural technology, she has a truly radical plan. She has designed the nation’s first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an ancient market system whose inefficiencies have been partly responsible for the country’s persistent food shortages.
In April 2008 and after more than a decade of planning, the starting bell rang on the trading floor for the first time. Gabre-Madhin has been running frantically ever since. She attempts to maintain the machinery that keeps her country fed while facing powerful special interests, antiquated farming practices, poor infrastructure, and an unpredictable climate. Not to mention a global economic crisis.
WIDE ANGLE travels to East Africa for The Market Maker, hosted by anchor Aaron Brown, to tell the dramatic, intimate story of a woman on a mission – and a world of trouble standing in her way. Watch a preview.
