Noug

PPI reports on how the trade of Noug (Niger Seed) has surpassed Coffee one of Ethiopia's more traditional exports.
"...Since 2002, "niger seed" has passed coffee, clothes, and spices in Ethiopia's American export trade, and now accounts for a third of the country's sales to the United States. Known to Ethiopian farmers as "noug" or "neug," and to botanists as Guizotia abyssinica, the seed is termed "black gold" by the professionals in the birdseed business...The exporters then clean the seed, pack it in 50-kilo bags, and move the bags by heavy truck to the port of Djibouti for loading into containers. Their only rival in the niger seed trade is India, which has been exporting the seed for about 20 years but is rapidly losing market share to Ethiopia. The 27,000 tons of Ethiopian seed exported in 2004 -- bringing in $14 million, a third of the country's $42 million in total exports to the United States -- puts the two countries at par, with Ethiopia poised to take the lead this year..."