Kampala, 10/10/07

EXPORTS OF FISH AND HONEY TO BOOST UGANDA'S ECONOMY IN FUTURE

By Leo Odera Omolo

Uganda's expert earnings are expected to grow threefold over the next five years ,owing to rising demands for major food products like fish and honey coupled with public-private partnership that can eliminate supply-based weakness.

A report compiled and published by the Economic Policy Research Centre at Makerere University entitled 'costs of overcoming market constraints to Uganda export-led growth strategy' has revealed.

According to the report there are two likely scenarios both beneficial .the most optimistic provider that fish and export earning will grow to about USD 1.24 billion by the year 2011. With a very low investment of USD 91.5 million ,the returns on investment would amount to USD 13 for every USD1 invested basing on a net return of USD 1.149 billion.

The less optimistic scenario provider that the fine products ,minus growth would yield USD 1.018 billion in the five years period (2007-2011) at a cost of USD 274 million .The return on investment would amount to USD 4 billion for over USD 1 billion invested basing on a net return of USD 806 million.

The report observed that the country needs to establish many critical capabilities or faultiness and support structure in order to comply with existing international food safety and plystosanitary (SPS) requirements plus voluntary regulatory standards.

In addition ,food safety regulatory is considered crucial for increasing growth and market access while a strong level of awareness in the public and private sector is necessary for addressing new and dynamic requirements in international trade.

Through identifying existing capacities to ensuring quality in food products ,the report reveals gap in Uganda's quality control systems and makes estimates of the costs benefits of overcoming such short comings.



While it restricts itself to fish and honey it suggest projections made for both may apply to other exports.

Fish and honey exports experienced impressive growth in the past 15 years and the report projections are largely droves by these figures.

Fish exports by Uganda grew by 96% from just USD 3 million in 19991 to USD 143.6 million by 2005 despite temporary bans on exports to the Europena Union member states by 1997 and 2000.

Currently all Uganda's fish processing industries are ISO 9001:2000 certified but the industry still suffers products losses through poor fish handling.

The report estimated that about 40 percent of the fish harvested from the lakes is rejected at landing sites due to poor quality caused by bad handling.

Honey is equally booming export products with valuable EU market access and relatively less tapped local potential.

The current production is estimated at 100,000 metric tones per year but this trend could rise by 400%.However the annual cost of quality analysis for the honey industry is very high - - USD 24,000 in 2005 which is not sustainable for the sector.

Stakeholders in the export sector interviewed were in support of the public private partnership but seemed less enthusiastic about meeting the financial obligations of such an undertaking.

'We do not provide money but we are ready to provide technical advice,' a technical officer in the Ministry of Trade was quoted saying in the report. The officer is based at Cleaner Production Centre (UCPC), which is responsible for awarding ISO: 140 certification.

William Tibyasa, the administrative of Uganda Fish Processors and Exports Association, echoed this sentiment.

'We believe we can do more in dialogue and technical assistance than just though, ' he said

The Uganda export Promotion Board (UEPB) the government agency in charge of promoting the country's exports holds a similar view. The public private partnership is needed but the qualitative aspect of ones contribution is also more important than lots of money because it is all about value addition,' Florence Katu the executive director of UEPB was further quoted as saying

The report draws from the strong growth in Uganda's export sector over the past 16 years. The country's export grew by 80% from USD 178 million in 1990 to USD 877 million in 2001.

The export led growth strategy was formulated by the government as one of the critical remedies for poverty in Uganda with supplementary backing from initiatives like the US-Africa growth and opportunities Act (AGOA) that is scheduled to operate until 2015

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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com