Mukono braces for vanilla season

Jun 28, 2004

A KILOGRAMME of green vanilla should sell for at least sh36,000 in the next vanilla harvesting season, Mukono district chairman, Godfrey Ddamulira (right), has said.

By Joel Ogwang

A KILOGRAMME of green vanilla should sell for at least sh36,000 in the next vanilla harvesting season, Mukono district chairman, Godfrey Ddamulira (right), has said.

Ddamulira was addressing vanilla farmers, dealers and exporters at the community centre hall recently.

He said recent media reports that a kilo of green vanilla would sell for less than sh10,000 were generated by some exporters who want to buy the crop cheaply.

“I did research on the Internet and found that a kilo of green vanilla exported abroad costs $40.

Farmers should sell to exporters at half that price to enable exporters cover transport costs abroad and make profits,” Ddamulira said.

He said a kilo of dried, processed and ready to consume vanilla costs $250 on the international markets.

Ddamulira said many Ugandan farmers and exporters don’t export processed vanilla.

He said although Ugandan vanilla had slumped, a kilo of green vanilla could not be sold at less than sh10,000.

The chairman encouraged farmers to grow organic vanilla on a large-scale because the European Union, the largest buyers of the crop, would soon ban export of inorganic/synthetic vanilla.

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