Ugandan farmers harvest Euros

Ugandan farmers harvest Euros
Publish Date: Jul 13, 2015 Newvision

By Gilbert Kidimu

Did someone brand Uganda East Africa’s food basket? Perhaps World’s food basket is a more accurate metaphor? Our sweet bananas, chillies, Okra, and surprisingly, matooke are such hot items, they are slowly becoming staples in downtown European markets as they are in uptown supermarkets.

One of the people making sure David Beckham eats fresh sweet bananas during winter is Michael Owino, MD Tropical Dynasty, a fruits and vegetables export company.

Tropical Dynasty has for the past ten years exported fruits and vegetables to European Union member states, shipping food stuffs such as chillies, okra, matooke, apple bananas and potatoes.

“The market for matooke is thanks to Ugandans living in the UK,” reveals Owino.

Every month, Owino’s company exports sixty tonnes of fruits and vegetables, a great increase from the six tonnes they exported ten years ago when they started out. Similarly, his company’s turnover has increased from sh50 million to sh2 billion

Demand for Ugandan produce is so great, Owino acknowledges that they cannot meet the demand, especially that of Chillies and Okra.

“We are very strict on the quality of chillies exported, so we only work with farmers who meet the required standards, which lessens the amount exported,” he explains.

Owino says a number of challenges trail exporting agricultural produce to the EU market, seeing the high standards required by European countries.

The reason he exports less chillies than he has market for is because many farmers don’t meet those standards.

“We have had to import seeds for our growers because of fake ones on the market. This of course increases our costs, which is why we regenerate those very seeds,” he adds.

“We look forward to growing at least 50% of all our exported produce especially the chillies since they are in high demand and require a lot of attention. We also plan to set up an international standard pack house.”

Trade with Europe

One of the reasons Owino and many exporters of fresh produce have a fondness for the European market, is the ready market available in abundance.

“Becoming an exporter doesn’t need a lot of starting capital, which is why many people are getting into it,” says Yiga Thomas, director Uganda Fruit and Vegetable Exporters.

“We have exporting companies in Uganda selling their agricultural produce directly to supermarkets in Europe. This shows just how serious the exporting business is seeing that supermarkets hold very high standards in these European countries,” he adds.

“Before, there were numerous associations for exporters, but now we have one apex body, formed in January this year, to represent all exporters. The major objective is to bring all exporters under one umbrella to learn the nature of international business, which entails lots of guidelines and high standards.”

Some of the European Union stipulated standards are; traceability, which means a product, has to be traced from the garden to the plate.

Also, the produce has to be free of pests and diseases or any harmful organ.

Exports mustn’t exceed minimum residue levels. Pesticides have to be sprayed within a limited period of time and not further, so that by the time of harvest, the pesticide residue have reduced to a bare minimum if at all.

Yiga says, Uganda exports 45, 958 tonnes of fruits and vegetables to Europe generating $18.1 million sh54 billion annually.

“The most demanded for exports are chillies, matooke, and garden eggs (entula).”

There are currently 50 exporting companies in Uganda, each working with an average of 100 farmers. It should be noted that more than 80% of all Ugandans depend on farming to earn a living, which explains the significance of agricultural produce to both the welfare of citizens of this country and its economy.

Challenges

The export sector’s course isn’t plain sailing at all.  A few farmers have had to destroy their crops after their hot peppers and chillies were found containing a moth, says Yiga

He also adds that Ugandan packaging leaves room for improvement.

“Inflation is working against us. We pay our tickets in dollars but sell our products in Euros. While the dollar has been gaining ground, the Euro has remained stagnant.”

Published in the Newvision.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/670916-ugandan-farmers-harvest-euros.html