AGOA turns focus to crafts
Jan 21, 2010
The Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Country Response Office has turned its focus from predominantly promoting the export of apparels to the US market to handicrafts.
By Stephen Ilungole
The Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Country Response Office has turned its focus from predominantly promoting the export of apparels to the US market to handicrafts.
Under its new “Hope Crafts†initiative, the office will target women who dominate the sector, Susan Muhwezi, the special presidential assistant on AGOA and trade, said on Monday.
She said the new project was capable of creating products that can be identified as “truly Ugandan.â€
The largest chunk of Uganda’s handicrafts are being sold to tourists and exported by individuals on small scale.
Muhwezi explained that with the expanding reduced and tax-free markets across the globe, it meant that Uganda had an even bigger opportunity to fulfil her economic ambitions.
“The challenge lies in identifying suitable products that appeal to the international community and then mobilising large scale production at the grassroots,†she argued.
She said Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Madagascar had already reaped big from handicraft exports.
Muhwezi said the Uganda Export Promotion Board data showed that unfulfilled demand for handicraft products existed on the international market.
“But the sector people do not pay attention. AGOA has been misunderstood to mean apparels whereas not.
“There are thousands of other products that we can export under AGOA.
“Neighbouring countries have benefited from AGOA through crafts. These are products we all make at regional level. It does not require billions of shillings.
“That is what we can do as a government,†Muhwezi pleaded.
She indicated that most women require as little as transport to take their products to the market.
Muhwezi was speaking during the new project’s first handicrafts exhibition at Emin Pasha Hotel in Kampala. The fair aimed at strategising the crafts sector to increase export sales to the US and European Union (EU) markets, Llenay Ferretti, the United States International Development Agency buyer linkages specialist, who helped organise it, said.
“We wanted to organise the industry to help the companies that are exporting at small scale increase their experience and opportunities,†Ferretti said.
The show, she added, was also intended to understand what the small scale individual exporters need to do more.
“We need to train more people to improve the quality of their products. We also need to develop finance investment and capacity through training,†Ferretti said.
She disclosed that exporters would visit the biggest gift shop in New York in the US at the end of January to learn the existing opportunities.
“There is an opportunity to begin small niche companies targeting export market access that local firms need to do business in large scale.
“Some firms have infrastructure capacity to do large export business but lack capital investment,†noted Ferretti.
Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, the tourism, trade and industry minister, who officiated at the show, encouraged the exhibitors to think big.
“Like they say a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, you be the match that ignites the big fire,†the minister told the exhibitors.
He said modern markets were interconnected such that exports to the US market open doors to the EU, Japan and China markets.
“There is small scale industrial support in my ministry.
“Let us see what little we can add to those who are trying to add value to crafts.
“Nobody is born rich, great or famous. It is made,†the minister added.
The Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Country Response Office has turned its focus from predominantly promoting the export of apparels to the US market to handicrafts.
Under its new “Hope Crafts†initiative, the office will target women who dominate the sector, Susan Muhwezi, the special presidential assistant on AGOA and trade, said on Monday.
She said the new project was capable of creating products that can be identified as “truly Ugandan.â€
The largest chunk of Uganda’s handicrafts are being sold to tourists and exported by individuals on small scale.
Muhwezi explained that with the expanding reduced and tax-free markets across the globe, it meant that Uganda had an even bigger opportunity to fulfil her economic ambitions.
“The challenge lies in identifying suitable products that appeal to the international community and then mobilising large scale production at the grassroots,†she argued.
She said Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Madagascar had already reaped big from handicraft exports.
Muhwezi said the Uganda Export Promotion Board data showed that unfulfilled demand for handicraft products existed on the international market.
“But the sector people do not pay attention. AGOA has been misunderstood to mean apparels whereas not.
“There are thousands of other products that we can export under AGOA.
“Neighbouring countries have benefited from AGOA through crafts. These are products we all make at regional level. It does not require billions of shillings.
“That is what we can do as a government,†Muhwezi pleaded.
She indicated that most women require as little as transport to take their products to the market.
Muhwezi was speaking during the new project’s first handicrafts exhibition at Emin Pasha Hotel in Kampala. The fair aimed at strategising the crafts sector to increase export sales to the US and European Union (EU) markets, Llenay Ferretti, the United States International Development Agency buyer linkages specialist, who helped organise it, said.
“We wanted to organise the industry to help the companies that are exporting at small scale increase their experience and opportunities,†Ferretti said.
The show, she added, was also intended to understand what the small scale individual exporters need to do more.
“We need to train more people to improve the quality of their products. We also need to develop finance investment and capacity through training,†Ferretti said.
She disclosed that exporters would visit the biggest gift shop in New York in the US at the end of January to learn the existing opportunities.
“There is an opportunity to begin small niche companies targeting export market access that local firms need to do business in large scale.
“Some firms have infrastructure capacity to do large export business but lack capital investment,†noted Ferretti.
Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, the tourism, trade and industry minister, who officiated at the show, encouraged the exhibitors to think big.
“Like they say a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, you be the match that ignites the big fire,†the minister told the exhibitors.
He said modern markets were interconnected such that exports to the US market open doors to the EU, Japan and China markets.
“There is small scale industrial support in my ministry.
“Let us see what little we can add to those who are trying to add value to crafts.
“Nobody is born rich, great or famous. It is made,†the minister added.