ADDIS ABABA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has earned 513.9 million U.S. dollars from gold exports in the first 11 months of the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2021/2022, which started on July 8, an Ethiopian minister said on Tuesday.

       "Our gold export revenues are now the second highest foreign currency earner for our country next to coffee exports," Takele Uma, Ethiopia Minister of Mines said in a Facebook post.

       "We're working with the National Bank of Ethiopia to boost the amount of gold being deposited to NBE. When the improvements are finished and it becomes operational, the foreign currency earned from gold exports will further increase," Uma further said.

       Ethiopia earned 1.2 billion U.S. dollars revenue from coffee exports during the first 11 months of the current 2021/2022 fiscal year.

       In recent years, Ethiopia has undertaken a mass sensitization campaign to combat contraband mining activities that have been partly blamed for the east African country achieving unsatisfactory mining revenues in previous years.

       The east African country has also made several key reforms in the mining sector in recent years to boost its revenue from the mining sector.

       This includes the establishment of several gold trading centers as Ethiopia seeks to boost its income from the mining sector and at the same time reduce contraband mining trade.