Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni said the UK was “underutilising” its trade links with many African countries in light of fruit & veg shortages.
Museveni – who has been in power for over four decades – said the UK could have “absolutely” avoided the current fruit & veg shortages if it had set up more robust trade deals with Uganda and other African nations post-Brexit.
The president told The Grocer the UK was “missing opportunities” for trade with its Commonwealth partners like Uganda, and that farmers in the East African nation were ready to ramp up exports of fresh produce and coffee.
“Those kinds of produce grow very easily here because of the climate,” he said during a visit to the northern city of Gulu on 24 February.
He added that many African countries were “shut out” in terms of European trade at the time of the creation of the European Union, but that the UK’s exit from the bloc had offered chances for increased trade with African countries.
He said Uganda had “no problems” with the UK and that bolstering trade in a post-Brexit environment was a matter of “information and co-ordination” between governments.
The president’s comments come amid growing pressure for supply chain diversification after UK supermarket shelves were left empty of fresh fruit & veg due to a combination of factors including bad weather in Spain and Morocco and Brexit-related challenges.
Some of Uganda’s top agricultural crops include mangoes, bananas, chillies, onions and sweet potatoes, but the country also grows tomatoes and peppers.
Many supermarkets, including Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi, have started rationing fresh produce due to supply chain shortages.
“In order to create wealth, you need four factors of production – land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. The UK has capital and entrepreneurship, we have land and labour,” Museveni said.
“The British are not using their opportunities.”
The Ugandan president added that if British companies were “actively encouraged by their government they would invest in Uganda to create products that would be sold here as well as the rest of Africa and back in the UK”.
The chair of Uganda’s presidential advisory committee on exports and industrial development, Odrek Rwabwogo, said the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – which aims to create an African single market – will open more doors for trade between the UK and its Commonwealth partners.
Uganda is aiming to ramp up its exports from the current $6.6bn to $12bn by 2027 in order to compete with neighbours like Kenya and Ethiopia. The East African nation is also one of the world’s largest coffee producers, exporting over six million bags of coffee in 2022.
It has developed a new exports centre at its airport that is set to allow more fresh produce as well as coffee to be exported at cheaper prices to the UK and other European countries.
But president Museveni also stressed the need for value addition at the source in producing countries via co-operation with consuming countries like the UK, the US and the EU.
He called the International Coffee Organisation a “slavery organisation”, saying members like Germany and France expected countries such as Uganda to be “producers of raw materials only”.
Uganda quit the ICO a year ago after trading its coffee under the group’s agreement for 15 years in attempts to pressurise the group to address its concerns as a major coffee producing country, arguing it doesn’t protect the interests of farmers who often do not get paid premium prices.
Britain has pledged to work more closely on investment as well as facilitating trade with African countries last year as it supported the AfCFTA project.
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