Essentials to live in Ethiopia

Basically everything can be found in Ethiopia but to prices much higher for imported goods then you will find in Europe for example and the range to choose from is limited and not always the latest! This is due to politics to have high import taxes and for a long time not allowing international chains to establish. It means that a good advice is to bring things that are high priced per kilo, but there is also a risk that the custom authorities decide that you import spares and things not for personal use etc. For example I had to pay extra tax when I arrived with two laptops once (private + work) since it was considered some kind of luxuary to have two! I also had to pay high taxes like ~ +100% when I sent stuff from earlier assignement were the level of tax was decided rather randomly on prices for similar new stuff checked on manufacturers webpages! I also once brought a TV found cheap in Saudi but was taxed for more advanced similar size TV why it went rather expensive! Due to this it is not always worth to import stuff. My experience that smaller tools machinery etc can be worth to bring in luggage but as soon as something is very visible externaly or on Xray the risk for tax is a biggie :-)

If you as me like to cook and uses local spices from your country that are not very international it can also be nice to bring them! International spices are easy to find!

I also raid IKEA and similar stores before going every time since basic cooking stuff of high quality can be expensive and hard to find!