Focus On Agriculture
Nov 02, 2002
IN YESTERDAY’S Business Vision there were numerous references to potential agricultural exports from Uganda.
IN YESTERDAY’S Business Vision there were numerous references to potential agricultural exports from Uganda.
Jackfruit or Fene is selling for up to Ush70,000 in London yet it costs virtually nothing in Uganda. An American company has just confirmed that Gum Arabica can be exported from Karamoja and northern Uganda to the United States. The same company wants to export sim-sim to the USA.
Elsewhere there are reports that Coca-Cola plans to set up juice processing facilities in Uganda and that Turkey will start meat processing here.
Irrigated horticulture and floriculture is rapidly catching up with Kenya.
The grain exporters association has put in place a minimum floor price for beans and maize that should result in increased exports.
The UN has just accused Uganda of plundering the Congo but no one seems to have got rich from it. If anyone made a fortune, it was foreigners collaborating with the military and Congolese rebels.
Yet Uganda is sitting on its own gold mine — agriculture!
A few people realise this but most people still do not accept that Uganda’s road to long-term prosperity is through agriculture.
Once the East African Community finalises its common external tariff and eliminates internal duties, Uganda will become the breadbasket of East Africa. Its industries may struggle to compete with Kenya but its farmers will be able to export fruit, vegetable and cereals in huge quantities to its more urbanised neighbour.
Government has put in place the Plan to Modernise Agriculture but it will only take off properly when people internalise that farming is the foundation of our future prosperity. The opportunities are there. Let’s all start looking for them. Ends
Jackfruit or Fene is selling for up to Ush70,000 in London yet it costs virtually nothing in Uganda. An American company has just confirmed that Gum Arabica can be exported from Karamoja and northern Uganda to the United States. The same company wants to export sim-sim to the USA.
Elsewhere there are reports that Coca-Cola plans to set up juice processing facilities in Uganda and that Turkey will start meat processing here.
Irrigated horticulture and floriculture is rapidly catching up with Kenya.
The grain exporters association has put in place a minimum floor price for beans and maize that should result in increased exports.
The UN has just accused Uganda of plundering the Congo but no one seems to have got rich from it. If anyone made a fortune, it was foreigners collaborating with the military and Congolese rebels.
Yet Uganda is sitting on its own gold mine — agriculture!
A few people realise this but most people still do not accept that Uganda’s road to long-term prosperity is through agriculture.
Once the East African Community finalises its common external tariff and eliminates internal duties, Uganda will become the breadbasket of East Africa. Its industries may struggle to compete with Kenya but its farmers will be able to export fruit, vegetable and cereals in huge quantities to its more urbanised neighbour.
Government has put in place the Plan to Modernise Agriculture but it will only take off properly when people internalise that farming is the foundation of our future prosperity. The opportunities are there. Let’s all start looking for them. Ends