{UAH} A CRITICAL LOOK AT FOOD EXPORTATION OUT OF UGANDA

Friends

 

There is nothing we need to think about very critically as Uganda using food as an export to earn foreign exchange. And I need to start on this one by raising the mistakes we have done all along that we need to change. Northern Uganda and the entire area between Karuma bridge and Pakwach remains  the most fertile land in the entire African continent. Had these friends only took a moment to think and hard, and invest into the fertile land they have, Lango and Acholi would today, be actually feeding our entire country, but they would be feeding the entire refugee population United Nations own in the continent. When land is flat it saves all its fertility and sadly people like Acholi and Langi have decided to sit on such amount of fertility, in their land and decided to invest their entire lives in murdering each other, but murdering their fellow Ugandans. And this blame goes as well to the people of the entire Kigezi for that land is also very fertile, Bakiga have decided to simply neglect that fertility, for they are simply lazy and they hate their home. Bakiga remain the most population to live out of their region in the entire country. We are remaining with Buganda and parts of Eastern Uganda that we till day in and day out to feed a bunch of lazies, and ourselves, but to run the export market as well. With time the land of Buganda and Eastern Uganda is going to give up for we have over used it. One wonders how then we will feed that massively growing population and that  massively growing export market.

 

All past governments neglected to tap into the food export market , and for some very un-known reason even Iddi Amin that was a nationalist failed to wake up this market. And yes Amin started to export some Pineapples but it was at a very small scale, for I remember we bought Uganda Pineapples in Tripoli airport, and they were cheaper than on a Masaka farm, but the numbers exported were not encouraging.  I have sat in this city and seen the foods we eat, it is worse than what we were producing in Uganda. The Tomatoes are terrible, Oranges are terrible, Pineapples are terrible, everything you see in our markets is terrible if you compare it to what we grew up eating. But Uganda also wastes what it would have exported, and I am raising two to you this morning, why don’t we export cassava leaves? It is a very good vegetable yet from time memorial we leave it on the trees and it dies away. That is lost foreign exchange. Why do we export Matooke but never export the Empumumpu? {And probably some one can list that for me in English} Indians are making a killing out of Empumumpu here for it is a great delicatessen, yet we always leave them in the garden to rot. That is lost foreign exchange. You can actually start an export company in Uganda to export only cassava leaves and Empumumpu and die a very rich man.

 

When you decide to export food as a foreign exchange earner, you must turn around and produce it commercially. Uganda is making a huge mistake of exporting food that is grown for the local market, you are going to reach a point of starving the population. If the government opens up its customs  for food to leave the country it has a responsibility to make sure that this food is commercially grown, massive farms must be created to produce it, in that way the government makes sure  that local consumption is not affected by exporting the food out, but it allows the population to have jobs in those firms. Exportation is about contracts, and those contracts must be filled in, can you imagine what Ugandans will export if we get attacked by shortage of rain? What will you export out of Uganda if a massive earth quake attacks the region you are sucking dry today? What if we get too much rain and the whole land is soaked up to the death of crops what will you export then? And lastly as every Ugandan runs to Kampala, who is going to look after those farms you are pulling food out of? Let us remember that the business that was running very high in Uganda was charcoal making, it died for we cut down all trees and turned them into charcoal. I lamented about that practice until when I gave up. Every single day I went to Uganda I found a lost forest for the trees were turned into charcoal and we were not planting any new ones, therefore we killed the trees and the industry died. Stop to export food that is not commercially grown for it is going to run out and you are going to fail to feed the people.

 

Commercially growing food, has a secondary benefit, it raises the quality of the exports. Have you ever opened a box of Uganda Matooke? There is a small piece and a large piece and a middle sized piece, which you will never find out of a box from Guatemala. Matoke from Mexico are weighed and are bought by size for someone takes a moment to grade them. What is the weight of a Uganda matooke box? What size are sold and in what country? Do you know? For I simply don’t. And it is not only important for me as a buyer but that control is important  for you as a seller to understand that your food supply is controlled so it will be there tomorrow. Sadly when you look at Uganda exports they are targeted not to the international community, it is narrowly targeted to Ugandans in diaspora. That is not a market built to grow for what will you do if we all fly home? People have fridges and our fridges are in different sizes, I need to know how much I put in and what size it is, when an old lady in Masaka boxes these things she does not care about that details she just boxes. But commercially growing it also pushes the selling company or country to create a better boxing system. We have tied our exports with Kagogwa too  long, this is 2016, my God can’t we even create a better box in Uganda to export in? Is that the best we can do really? I need whoever is exporting food out of Uganda to contact me and I will send you a sample of a box that is used to export food, may be you have just never seen one.

 

We need to take a very careful look at food exportation out of Uganda for we might be creating a larger problem that we have thought of.

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"