Licenses of traders attempting to export substandard horticultural products will be revoked in order to protect Uganda’s export interests. The measure was unveiled this morning by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries following a stern warning from the European Union about declining standards of Uganda’s exports, especially roses, fruits and vegetables. Agriculture minister Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja says Uganda’s exports are increasingly being blocked from entering the export market due to failure to meet standards. Ssempijja said the rejection of Uganda’s export products has been caused by the presence of harmful organisms and excess pesticide residues. The most affected commodities include peppers (capsicum), Annona (Kitafeli) and roses. Ssempijja told journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala on Tuesday that the government will be watching exporters, traders and farmers closely to ensure quality products at all levels. He says that Ugandan traders will now be required to introduce their chain of farmers to ministry officials, to be assisted in improving standards. Ssempijja said that the ministry will stop the clearance of export consignments of any exporter with more than one interception by the European Union. Ssempijja said he has already appointed a National Task Force comprising both private sector and technical staff to specifically guide compliance on exports and the development of strategies to ensure Ugandan products maintain the current markets, but also penetrate new niche markets. “The ministry is planning to procure equipment for analyzing pesticide residues to support export certification for compliance of pesticide residues,” he said. Ssempijja...

The East African Community is strategizing its plan to remove barriers that are considered responsible for low intra-regional trade. Around 200 experts, under the initiative from all the partner states would be trained on the best skills to fight trade bottlenecks in the region. The apex body of private sector organizations, The East African Business Council(EABC), will spearhead the programme in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC). The four-year initiative took off in Tanzania's Arusha on April 8 with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organizations. This was followed by the commencement of the first such training on trade facilitation for business associations and trade experts from the region. "Trade barriers remain high in East Africa. The private sector has to work with the governments to address this," the executive director of EABC, Peter Mathuki lamented. This, what he believes, has been compounded by delays and red tape which hampered the movement of goods across borders, as reported by PML Daily. Within the East African Community bloc, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are among the first WTO members to ratify the TFA. Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan are yet to ratify the agreement. Source: Devdiscourse

In 2019, drought could negatively affect Kenya’s economy by hitting the agricultural sector, the World Bank announced in a new report published this week. According to the institution, the country’s growth could fall from the initial forecast (published in October 2018 at 5.8%) to 5.7% due to the impact that drought could have on the country’s agricultural sector that represents about one-third of its GDP. “Risks include drought conditions that could curtail agricultural output, especially if the country’s grain-growing counties are affected,” the institution indicated according to Reuters. Coupled with external risks (trade tensions that could affect Kenya’s exports) and difficulties in domestic revenue mobilization, these factors could negatively impact the performances of the East African country this year. Last week, its president Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the country’s economy should grow to 6.3% this year thanks to future investments in the framework of the Big Four Agenda. Source: Ecofin Agency

The third edition of the China Trade Week (CTW), a “One Belt, One Road” initiative inspired event will take place in Ethiopia from May 2 to 4 at the Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa. MIE Groups, the founder of the conference will host the three-day event in collaboration with the Ethiopian Prana Events. Established in 2013, China Trade Week had its first event in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was warmly welcomed by the local business community, it was followed by the first African event in Kenya in 2015 which had an even bigger response. It later debuted in Ethiopia in 2017. The trade fair seeks to pull over 100 investors and exhibitors from sectors including construction materials and machinery, lighting and energy, clothing and textiles, electrical goods and electronics, automotive parts and accessories, health and beauty, print, packaging and plastic, baby and infant products and food and beverage. Commenting on the trade fair, Zahoor Ahmed, Director International Events, MIE Groups said, “We look forward to welcoming thousands of professionals to this year’s CTW Ethiopia, at a time when the country is going through significant positive economic and regional changes.” The Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce & Sectorial Associations Secretary-General, Africa Zeleke added, “The chamber decided to partner with this trade fare as China remains the biggest market for many Ethiopian goods exported. This includes 70 per cent of our sesame. Also, the majority of our goods are imported from China and we want to narrow the gap of the...

Despite the internal East African Communities having a market of about 146 million consumers, the regional trade still faces numerous constraints. CNBC Africa spoke to Hon. Peter Mathuki, Executive Director and CEO of East African Business Council on this and more. Source: CNBC Africa

TANZANIA earned 80 million US dollars (over 180bn/) from the sale of 65,000 tonnes of coffee collected in the 2018/19 crop season, Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has said. Speaking at the tenth National Coffee Stakeholders meeting here recently, TCB Director General Primus Kimaryo said 40,940 tonnes of coffee were sold through TCB Coffee Exchange, with the remaining 24,583 sold through Direct Coffee Export. Robusta coffee dominated the direct export, with 19,399 tonnes, constituting 78.9 per cent while 5,183 tonnes of Arabica coffee made 21.1 per cent of the consignment. Mr Kimaryo said although coffee production during the 2018/19 season was 65,000 tonnes, an increase of 30 per cent from the previous year’s 50,000 tonnes, prices in the world market were not favorable to farmers. He challenged farmers across the country to put more emphasis on production of high quality coffee to fetch good prices in the world market in future seasons. “Markets like Fair Trade after certification and organic coffee exports always offer lucrative prices… farmers should in future aim at those markets for they have stable and favorable prices,” he said. Outlining how each coffee producing region fared during the season, Mr Kimaryo said Kagera led all regions, with production of 29,456.9 tonnes ahead of Ruvuma, Songwe and Kilimanjaro, which produced 16,104, 10,996 and 3,135.4 tonnes, respectively. Other regions in the list with their produced tonnes of coffee in brackets were Mbeya (2,204.8), Arusha (1,985.6), Kigoma (1,264) and Mara (199.5). Others were Tanga (100), Njombe (40.3), Iringa (21.7) and...

EAST African Business Council (EABC) has partnered with the International Trade Centre (ITC) to enhance capacity in advocacy for removal of trade barriers and enhancement of export competitiveness. Under the four-year European Union (EU)- EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP), the new partnership will support the EABC to improve the capacity of the private sector and trade supporting institutions on the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in East Africa to remove trade barriers. “It is undisputable fact that TFA is increasingly becoming an important tool for countries to improve their business environment through initiation of various trade facilitation reforms,” EABC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Mathuki said during an official opening of the regional training on trade facilitation. Seeking to build capacity of the East African Private Sector, EABC in collaboration with ITC initiated the regional training of trainers (ToT) programme to widely disseminate standardised training model for the private sector on WTOTFA. The regional training brought together representatives from the national private sector apex bodies and Trade Supporting Institutions (TSIs) across the EAC region. TFA came into force in February 2017 after the mandatory two-thirds of the WTO members ratified and notified its acceptance. The objective of the WTO TFA is to lower trade barriers around the world and facilitate expansive global trade. ITC Representative Victoria Tuomisto who is conducting the training for Masters of Trainers on TFA in collaboration with EAC witnessed the signing of Memorandum of Understanding. Delays and red tape are among impediments...

Regional businesses have decried the persistence of non-tariff barriers which they say often gets in the way of their operations. Presenting their challenges before the East African Business Council and officials of the East Africa secretariat, operators said that non-tarrif barriers continue to be the largest impediment to their operations. The meeting came at a time when the business community members across the region has been said to be experiencing hardships which some said had led them to incur losses. Among the products that have been experiencing difficulties in trade, they said, include insurance products and medical supplies often due to uneven standards and conditions. Christine Mukundwa, Head of Corporate Business at Sonarwa General Insurance Company, said that local insurance players are still finding difficulties to help out their local clients in the event of incidences when travelling within the region. Dr Abel Dushimimana the Chairperson of Importers of Pharmaceutical Products, said that one of the major challenges is that some member states still have to subject medicines that are manufactured in the region to multiple standard checks despite the bilateral and multilateral agreements that have been signed. "It is surprising that some member states are still subjecting medicines manufactured from other partner states to multiple standard checks on claims of doubt, it is unacceptable because it is stalling businesses especially as importers," he said. The Executive Director of the EABC, Peter Mathuki, said that the organ is seeking to reclaim its autonomy as it is stipulated in the EAC...

Uganda accounted for more than a quarter of the business at the port of Mombasa in 2018, pushing the total transit volumes up by 10 per cent from 8.6 million tonnes in 2017 to 9.6 million tonnes. Uganda remains a key trade partner for Kenya as its exports and imports passing through Mombasa are increasing. The latest figures for 2018 from the Kenya Ports Authority 2017 annual performance report show that Uganda remained the leading Mombasa port user, with its import cargo rising steadily from 6.5 million tonnes in 2017 to 7.4 million tonnes of goods last year. However, its exports through the Mombasa port, mostly tea, dropped from 522,876 tonnes in 2017 to 471,812 tonnes last year. Tea is one of Uganda’s biggest exports, mostly shipped to Pakistan and the United Kingdom. On average, Uganda exports about 60,000 tonnes indirectly through the Mombasa tea auction as Kenyan branded tea through 27 exporting companies. In 2017, the country exported tea through the port of Mombasa worth $79.8 million, up from $71.5 million recorded in 2016. Uganda also exports tea to Sudan, Egypt and DR Congo. Tea auction Last year, Uganda was pushing to have its own auction and market its tea directly to buyers to get better prices for exporters. Ugandan exporters held back some of their produce as they planned an alternative auction in Kampala, thus reducing the country’s exports via Mombasa port. During President Yoweri Museveni visit to the port last week, Kenya offered Uganda a piece of...

Talks between Kenya and Uganda when President Yoweri Museveni visited Kenya recently mainly focused on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and operations at the Port of Mombasa. The main reason the two facilities took centre stage is obvious to see; the 2018 port transit report places Uganda as the biggest user of the port where it had imported 7.4 million metric tonnes of goods last year. It was an increase from 6.5 million tonnes of goods compared with the previous year. The country’s transit market share in 2018 was a massive 82.1 per cent. Between 2017 and 2018, cargo imports into Uganda increased by 0.9 million tones. According to the report, Uganda was followed by South Sudan that had imported 563,663 tonnes which represented 7.6 per cent of the transit market share. DRC Congo came third with 413,249 imports representing 4.9 per cent. The rest of the imports were Tanzania’s 229,652 (2.6 per cent), Rwanda’s 219,650 (2.4 per cent), Burundi’s 20,610(0.2 per cent). Other countries including Somalia, Ethiopia and Burundi had 0.1 percent imports through the port. In total, the Mombasa port handled 8.8 million metric tonnes of transit goods. Transport and Infrastructure cabinet secretary James Macharia said Uganda is Kenya’s biggest trading partner and one of its huge clients at the Port of Mombasa. Addressing journalists at the SGR Miritini terminus before Mr Museveni boarded the Madaraka Express to Nairobi, Mr Macharia said out of the over 30 million tonnes of cargo throughput at the port, 25 per cent...