The foreign community was always rather large in terms of the total Addis Abeba population. Moreover, the foreign resident population had an effect on the growth of the food market out of proportion to its actual numbers, Many (not by any means all) foreign residents were well-off and they relied almost solely on cash purchases in the food market for their food supply. Even the less affluent foreigners (Greek and Armenian craftsmen, for example) had to buy their food in the market. Apart from bread and meat, foreigners were responsible for much of the consumption of fruit, vegetables, butter and milk in Addis Abeba and almost all the fish, and provided a market for the model farms round Addis Abeba. The production of edible oil in the refineries of Addis Abeba (of which the biggest was P. Zerccu's) was also for foreigners and rich Ethiopians. On the other hand, it is probable that some part of the outlay on food of the richer foreigners in Addis Abeba was spent on imported supplies - alcohol, sugar and tea are obvious examples. This trend became greater still after our period.

 Source: Research by David Chapple, made before the 1974 Revolution