Coronavirus Pandemic: An Opportunity for Rene Industries to be More Assertive and Versatile

Khushboo Vadodaria, Operations Director at Rene Industries Limited, discusses the effects of the recent Coronavirus pandemic on the economy and the pharmaceutical sector in Uganda, and explains how the crisis pushed Rene Industries to be more assertive and versatile.

“Definitely, like any other country, Uganda did suffer with the Coronavirus pandemic. There was a restriction on economic activity because of lockdowns, restriction of movement, government funds were being diverted to pandemic related activities. So, there were sectors that were not receiving enough funds for operations. There was also an increase in public debt which really hindered the growth of the economy. In 2019, we had a growth of approximately 5.5 to 5.8%. But for 2020, it is estimated at 0.4 to 1.8%. This was a drastic decrease in the GDP growth. Throughout 2020, we endured a number of high costs personally in the pharmaceutical sector because of logistics, which was our biggest hurdle last year because ports were shut down. The majority of our imports and raw materials come from India, China, and Europe and they scaled down on their production and on their shipments. We were fighting tooth and nail to even get active pharmaceutical ingredients into the country. Also, from Kenya to Uganda, imports have to reach the Mombasa Port and then cross into Uganda. There was COVID testing happening at the port and at the border so that was delaying shipments by 15 to 30 days. So, we really struggled a lot in the beginning with logistics. A lot of our sea shipments were diverted to air shipments so we had to pay heavy air freight on much of our imports. That increased our production costs by 8 to 10%, which is quite a lot, and production costs are quite high anyway. This caused quite a hurdle for us”, says Khushboo Vadodaria.

“The crisis definitely pushed us to be more assertive, more versatile. We had to be very innovative during the pandemic. We suffered with a lot of logistics issues. We have had to think outside of the box to drive further ideas on how to improve or streamline our logistics, which we have learned from. Since we had the hurdle in March and April, since June, we were much better at our logistics and timely delivery of our goods to the market. That is what actually has driven our growth. We have to think about further innovation that would not hinder our growth, but would ensure that we remain progressive with the times that lie ahead”, she adds.

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