The government should create incentives for investors in the floriculture sector, Juliet Musoke, the executive director of the Uganda flower exporters association, has said.
Musoke noted that lack of sector-specific incentives was hampering the growth of the flower industry.
“Uganda’s floriculture sector has stagnated compared to its regional counterparts.
“As a result, the country has become less attractive to new investors with some farmers re-locating to countries which offer incentives,” she said.
She said it was sad the government had not taken concrete measures to develop the sector, which earns over $36m (sh64.2b) in revenue annually.
“The sector needs development funds, training and market research packages to survive,” she said.
Musoke said increased production costs, high freight charges and the new labour laws make Uganda less competitive compared to countries like ethiopia and Kenya, which give flower farmers incentives.
This was during the launch of practical floricultural training programme for small flower farmers at Bukalasa Agricultural College in Wobulenzi on Monday.
The 1.5m euros training programme is part of the four-year NUFFIC project sponsored by the Netherlands government.
Harry Abels from the Netherlands embassy advised farmers to take advantage of the favourable soils and cheap labour to grow flower varieties that are highly demanded on the world market.
Topics like crop scheduling to cultural practices were discussed, green house production, harvesting, post-harvest handling, consumer trends and marketing, were discussed.
