Agriculture experts on Tuesday urged Ugandan farmers to adopt a value chain approach to boost efficiency, improve product quality, and increase export potential in a competitive international market.
Speaking at the National High-Level Event on Agro-Industrialisation and Export in Kampala, Paul Mwambu, Commissioner for Crop Inspection and Certification at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), emphasised the importance of quality production and proper packaging for market access.
‘It’s the quality that determines the competitiveness of the products. So, from our point of view as a Ministry, is that quality right from the point of production at the farm to packaging matters,’ Mr Mwambu said.
He warned that poor handling of products from the farm through aggregation, transportation, sorting, and packaging can lead to international market rejection. ‘So from our perspective as Ministry of Agriculture, there are concerns sometimes when our products face rejection from the international market,’ he added.
Mwambu called on farmers to elevate local products to compete with international brands dominating Ugandan markets.
Dr. Victoria Ssekitoleko, Chairperson of the Uganda Agribusiness Alliance (UAA), highlighted the value of collective production and aligning output with buyers’ needs.
‘If we grow our domestic value chains here, we can easily be part of international value chains,’ Dr Ssekitoleko said. ‘Let us produce it as a value chain. For example, we know that we have many factories processing avocado. Find out exactly what type of avocado the factories want. We also know that Kenya is buying avocado, find out which avocado in Uganda is ready for factory processing.’
She also urged farmers to focus on both quantity and quality to meet international market requirements.
Former Uganda Investment Authority CEO Dr. Maggie Kigozi encouraged the use of high-quality seeds and careful plant management while minimising pesticides and fertilisers to achieve good yields.
‘Let’s keep away from too many pesticides, and fertilizers, but try to use organic products and you will have good crops,’ Dr Kigozi said.
She also advised farmers to safeguard their land. ‘If you have land and not there, or cannot look after it, plant trees on it, you will be safe,’ she emphasised.
Julius Bigabwa, founder of Biglad Agri-Tourism Farm Ltd in Fort Portal City, called on farmers to supply raw materials to meet market demand.
‘They want it daily, for example when we make macadamia oil, they want like 1,000 litres per month of which it is too much and Uganda we haven’t yet got that oil,’ he said, adding: ‘We started exporting our macadamia products. All products are very expensive, for example one litre is Shs100,000 and one kilo of macadamia dry roasted also costs Shs100,000.’
The Science and Technology Initiative recently spotlighted over 2,000 Ugandan-made products-from food and beauty items to household essentials-with potential to scale internationally. Experts noted, however, that hurdles in quality control, packaging, and certification continue to limit their global reach.