The Agricultural and Agroprocessing Sector in Uganda by Brian Rwabwogo of Reco Industries

Brian Rwabwogo, CEO and Technical Director of Reco Industries Limited, shares his assessment of the agricultural and agroprocessing sector in Uganda.

“The agricultural sector and agroprocessing specifically is a very fast-growing sector. It is a sector that has the biggest chunk in terms of contribution to the economy. We have a lot of agriculture produce that is not value added and goes to waste. We sell a lot of raw materials as well. The idea now is to align ourselves as a country to take advantage of the produce and agriculture capacity that we have. There are not many companies that can do the conversion from raw materials to value addition. They lack both the technology and the skills to execute. We have a lot of companies that are investing in agriculture in primary production on the farms. However, even on the farm level, much of it is very subsistence based, not only because of the land tenure system but because it is also very fragmented. So, we decided that we have to work with the environment that we have. It is difficult to find large scale producers. Those that do come to do large scale production in Uganda export almost everything that they produce. Uganda is one of the fastest growing populations in the world. We need food. 60-70% of the population is under the age of 35. They need to eat, they need to grow, they need good nutrition. Uganda is a net importer of value added products so there is a lot of growth domestically. Uganda consumes a lot, but we need to also support the local production. When you look at priorities for investment by the government, they have also increased spending in agriculture. We are happy to see that this trend is increasing. We are looking to the future because the sky is the limit. Uganda has the capacity to support agriculture in all our neighboring countries from DRC to South Sudan to Kenya. We always have a deficit in grain and cereals to supply to our neighbors. The biggest challenge in all of this has always been the quality of produce. In terms of quantity, we are able to produce but because of knowledge, information, and international standards, the market now demands quality both in raw materials and finished products. Uganda is not able to meet its obligations in terms of quality. Last year, Uganda produced a lot of grain, but the rejection rate was very high. There have been years where Kenya has given us an open contract on grain but we have not been able to supply it in terms of quality. The next step now is to move from producing poor quality products in huge numbers to high quality products, perhaps in less volume but of better quality. Many of the diseases that exist today are non-communicable diseases that result from poor feeding. Either people are eating foods that have a lot of contaminants or they are not eating the right foods. We have invested in understanding how the economy works in terms of nutrition and agriculture because they go hand in hand”, says Brian Rwabwogo.

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