In order to meet the demand of regional markets such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), Ugandan fruit and vegetable suppliers have been advised to form partnerships.
The call was made by the executive director, Private sector foundation, Gideon Badagawa, at the second phase of the COMESA Business Council Local sourcing for Partnerships workshop in Uganda. The local sourcing for Partnerships project is aimed at promoting local sourcing by corporate companies from small agriculture enterprises within the country.
"We want to propel you into bigger markets in the region, the question that arises is the capacity to meet the demand in those markets in terms of quality and standards," said Badagawa.
Uganda is one of the 6 countries where the pilot project is being implemented and it comes at a time when Uganda is promoting the Buy Uganda Build Uganda Policy that is promoting consumption of goods made in Uganda, “But we cannot leverage these wider markets if we cannot sustain domestics markets in terms of supplies. To maintain such markets, issues like standards, frequency of supplying and working in groups to get the quantities required will have to be worked," said Badagawa.
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