Improve standards to attract foreign markets

Aug 06, 2019

During a three-day boot camp in Kampala, the EAC principal economist on investment and private sector development, Charles Omusala said the region’s success depends on prosperous agribusiness chains, with inward-looking and foreign trade links.

AGRIBUSINESS

The European Union, the International Trade Center (ITC) and the East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat have challenged farmers to meet global post handling requirements in order to attract foreign markets.

During a three-day boot camp in Kampala, the EAC principal economist on investment and private sector development, Charles Omusala said the region's success depends on prosperous agribusiness chains, with inward-looking and foreign trade links.

He said although the region's products such as coffee and tea have proven to be internationally competitive with good prospects for the European market, it is imperative that farmers meet the required quality.

"As a region, all our countries are agricultural based, and we look at the agriculture sector as the area where we can create jobs, wealth and revert poverty. We need to utilize this resource effectively by producing the right quantity and quality to supply the world," he said.

He said agriculture accounts for nearly 30% of the regional bloc's GDP and represents the most important sector in terms of the region's exports to the EU. The sector also employs nearly 90% of the region's workforce.

According to Omusala, the three institutions are closely working with the EAC under the Market Access Upgrade Program (MARKUP), to support increased exports of agribusiness and horticultural products, especially to European markets.

He said the program will also support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and corporatives to get access to affordable finance.

The associate expert, access to finance and investment at the ITC, Marco Aletti said the agribusiness sector has the potential for the EAC countries to diversify their export baskets and increase revenue.

He said MARKUP will assists SMEs and corporatives in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda by targeting specific agricultural commodities such as avocado, cocoa, coffee, tea, and horticulture.

"Under this project, we are working only on coffee and cocoa in Uganda. The project covers five countries in the EAC where coffee is the main crop. The aim is to contribute to the economic development of the region through increasing the value of both extra and intra-regional agricultural exports," he said.

He said farmers ought to look at the entire value chain:" because that is where the money is and not at the farm gate."

According to the transformational business network regional director for East Africa, Jacob Zikusooka, the MARKUP project will help farmers along the value chain to improve the quality of their products, get the right certification and also get access to processing machinery.

He said the program seeks to find solutions that will boost agricultural productivity in a transformative way and boost yields, while making production more efficient and sustainable, promote diversification, improve farming practices

"As of today we are taking baby steps in training and facilitating these enterprises to grow and become globally competitive," he said.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS),most of Uganda's agriculture is smallholder based, with farm holdings of 5 hectares or less accounting for 96% of all farms in the country.

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