The Minister for State and Agriculture has revealed that Uganda has secured, and is continuing to mobilize for trade forums for dairy products in West Africa.
According to Minister Bright Rwamirama, trading with wider market will boost acquisition of equipment and utilities for processing to improve value addition.
He said, “We have been to West Africa and North Africa and secured some markets there. We continue to do this wide search to see growth in this industry.”
The remarks were made during the 16th African Dairy Conference and Exhibition, which kicked off on Tuesday in Kampala. The conference is to highlight opportunities for dairy investment in Africa, as well as promote domestic milk consumption.
Uganda’s newest market will be Algeria starting next month as revealed by the Dairy Development Authority-DDA. Uganda and Algeria signed off on this deal in March this year to export milk products worth up to USD 500 million to North Africa.
According to statistics, in the past 5 years (2018-2022), production has increased from 2.51 billion litres to currently 3.4 billion litres.
Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry also noted that to promote diary trading in Uganda, there would be need to fair regulations for farmers. He advised that farmers should regularly be involved in policy making.
Peter Ngaruiya, the Executive Director of the Eastern and Southern African Dairy Association (ESADA) says that though intraregional trade is still a challenge, the association has achieved in improving quality of dairy products in the region.