Company profile
L&B General Trading PLC is a privately held Ethiopian trading company based in Addis Ababa. We move goods in both directions — Ethiopian agricultural and manufactured products out to the world, and the equipment and materials Ethiopian industry needs back in.
Who we are
Anyone can send a price list. The difficulty in Ethiopian trade lies elsewhere: securing volume at origin when the harvest is competitive, grading honestly when it would be easier not to, and assembling a document set that clears customs and satisfies a bank on the first presentation.
L&B has spent over a decade getting those things right. We began as a small import operation supplying spare parts and finishing materials into the Addis Ababa market, and grew into export as our buyers abroad started asking what Ethiopia could send them in return. Today the export division is the larger and faster-growing half of the business, serving buyers in the Gulf, Asia, Europe and across Africa.
The company is registered and licensed in Ethiopia for both import and export trade, banks with major Ethiopian commercial banks for letter-of-credit business, and works with established clearing, forwarding and inspection partners on the Djibouti corridor.
Head office · Addis AbabaWhat guides us
To connect Ethiopian producers to international markets on fair, transparent terms — delivering consignments that match contract specification, on schedule, with complete documentation, so that both the grower at origin and the buyer at destination gain.
To be recognised among Ethiopia's most dependable export houses — the name a foreign buyer reaches for first when they need Ethiopian origin, and the partner an Ethiopian producer trusts to represent their crop abroad.
Integrity in grading. Transparency in pricing. Respect for the growers, weavers and workers whose output we carry. Reliability measured in shipments delivered, not promises made.
Our journey
From a single import line into a two-way trading house with an export focus.
L&B General Trading PLC is registered and licensed, opening with the import and distribution of vehicle and machinery spare parts.
Building finishing materials and computer and communication equipment join the import portfolio, serving contractors, developers and institutions.
The export division opens with oilseeds and pulses, drawing on relationships built with buyers already trading with us on the import side.
Cold-chain fresh produce, livestock and halal meat, and textile and garment supply are added — broadening the export base across seasons.
Export is now the company's principal focus, with a dedicated export desk, named account officers and a growing set of long-term buyers across four continents.
At origin · collectionCapability
The infrastructure and relationships that let us commit to a shipment window and hold to it.
Standing purchase relationships with growers, cooperative unions and licensed abattoirs across the producing regions.
Established clearing, forwarding and trucking partners on the Modjo–Djibouti corridor and at Bole air cargo.
In-house handling of customs declarations, certificates of origin, phytosanitary, veterinary and fumigation paperwork.
Letter-of-credit, CAD and TT handling through major Ethiopian commercial banks and their correspondent networks.
Working at originResponsibility
Export earnings only matter if they reach the people who produced the goods. We buy directly from smallholders and cooperatives wherever we can, pay on agreed terms without delay, and keep our grading criteria plain so that a farmer knows exactly what determines the price they receive.
We can send a PDF profile with licence details, references and current product availability. Just ask.