On Sunday morning, customers crowded around the counter at Hanit Bakery in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The shop is a client of French food group Lesaffre, which produces ingredients such as yeast. The company set up operations in Ethiopia in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cLesaffre chose to open a factory in Ethiopia<\/a> because it’s the second most populous country in Africa,” says its country director, Marine Durot. “It’s also a country where we noticed people are eating more and more bread instead of injera [traditional sourdough flatbread],” she told RFI.<\/p>\n “For us, it was a key market where we wanted to establish a presence. We see strong prospects and solid growth potential.”<\/p>\n In December last year, the company launched\u00a0Lesaffre and Me<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a new digital platform designed to support bakers and pastry professionals across the country.<\/p>\n Opening up markets<\/p>\n Lesaffre is just one of a growing number of French firms turning to Ethiopia.<\/p>\n France<\/a> is the\u00a0third-largest European investor\u00a0in the country after the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with an estimated foreign direct investment (FDI) stock of \u20ac485 million, according to the French foreign office<\/a>.<\/p>\n While still limited in scale, the French economic presence is multi-sectoral \u2013 notably seen in energy, infrastructure, agri-food, logistics and the digital sector.<\/p>\n In recent years, Ethiopia has been opening up parts of its economy, particularly in those areas, to attract foreign investors.<\/p>\n \u201cCountries such as Ethiopia have launched reforms<\/a> to open up markets, liberalise various sectors and encourage investors to put money into their economies,” says\u00a0Getachew Teklemariam Alemu, an economist with the African Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Thanks to these reforms, the main macroeconomic obstacles to investment have now been removed.”<\/p>\n In mid-April, around 15 French companies visited the country at the initiative of Medef International \u2013 the overseas arm of the French business federation.<\/p>\n Poet, trader, explorer: following Rimbaud’s footsteps in Ethiopia<\/a><\/p>\n Escalating tensions<\/p>\n Ethiopia’s security situation, however, remains volatile. While the country’s civil war ended in 2022, escalating tensions between Addis Ababa\u00a0and the northern Tigray region are threatening to reignite conflict<\/a> between Ethiopia and Eritrea<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is also conflict in the Amhara and Oromia regions.<\/p>\n Tigray party restores pre-war parliament, jeopardising northern Ethiopia peace<\/a><\/p>\n Despite this, G\u00e9rard Wolf, president of Medef International, insists investors should not be put off.<\/p>\n \u201cConflicts like the one in Tigray<\/a> exist all over the world. In difficult places, but where the intensity of conflict is not extremely high, we’re not going to wait until everything is over before getting involved,” he said. “We don’t rule out going into a country simply because it is in conflict.”<\/p>\n In January 2026, French retail giant Carrefour announced it would launch in Ethiopia<\/a> by partnering with Queens Supermarket \u2013 an Ethiopian company and a subsidiary of the Midroc Investment Group owned by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi.<\/p>\n The firms are set to roll out the Carrefour franchise across Queens\u2019 existing stores, with the first of those expected to be rebranded by the end of June, according to African Business online.<\/p>\n \u201cCarrefour\u2019s expansion to Ethiopia, if executed well, will create brand new jobs, transfer skills and integrate local agricultural products into global markets, enhancing export opportunities for farmers while linking local production to Carrefour\u2019s extensive network,\u201d Bernard Laurendeau, managing partner at consultancy firm Laurendeau & Associates, told\u00a0<\/a>African Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf local entrepreneurs are included in the value chains, this will also help mature the budding entrepreneurship ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n