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KAMPALA - Uganda has up to December 31 to improve the quality of fruits and vegetables exported to Europe or suffer a ban.
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| A fruit farmer picks passion fruits in Luwero (File Photo). | In a bid to salvage the situation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries is desperately looking for Shs 3 billion to finance an emergency programme to improve the quality of these products.
He said his ministry would raise Shs1.5 billion. Government, through the ministry of Finance, is expected to provide the balance.
At stake is the millions of dollars Uganda earns from the export of pineapples, mangoes, oranges, passion fruits, cabbages and sugarcane to Europe.
Dr Kisamba Mugerwa, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, said he needed the money for a mass sensitisation campaign of the farmers, inspection of export companies and establishment of export promotion villages.
He said he had already received several verbal communications from the European Union over the deteriorating quality of these products.
As a long-term strategy, the ministry plans to sub-divide the country into agricultural zones to produce a particular product to ensure effective monitoring.
The program has started in Wakiso, Mpigi, Luwero, Mukono, Kasese and Kamuli.
“What we want is to have a particular region producing a particular product for proper monitoring. For example if we realise that there is a problem with jack fruits we know where to go,” he said.
The ministry will enlist the support of local and foreign private firms to save the market for Uganda’s products. The ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry will take charge of the verification of the quality of all the exports.
“We shall work in conjunction with international companies, by attaching them to local exporters,” he said.
Exporters will be required to indicate where a particular product was picked.
He warned that exporters who fail to adhere to the new guidelines would be banned.
“We shall do it the way we handled the issue of fish. Fruits exporting companies will be concerned with quality since they may loose business,” Mugerwa said.
Three years ago, the European Union banned fish imports from the East African region including Uganda in which the country lost billions of shillings in export revenue.
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