Demand for Uganden produce in Europe

Tropical Dynasty has for the past ten years exported fruits and vegetables to European Union member…

Tropical Dynasty has for the past ten years exported fruits and vegetables to European Union member states, shipping food stuffs such as chillies, okra, matooke, apple bananas and potatoes.

“The market for matooke is thanks to Ugandans living in the UK,” reveals Owino.

Every month, Owino’s company exports sixty tonnes of fruits and vegetables, a great increase from the six tonnes they exported ten years ago when they started out. Similarly, his company’s turnover has increased from sh50 million to sh2 billion

Demand for Ugandan produce is so great, Owino acknowledges that they cannot meet the demand, especially that of Chillies and Okra.

“We are very strict on the quality of chillies exported, so we only work with farmers who meet the required standards, which lessens the amount exported,” he explains.

Owino says a number of challenges trail exporting agricultural produce to the EU market, seeing the high standards required by European countries.

The reason he exports less chillies than he has market for is because many farmers don’t meet those standards.

“We have had to import seeds for our growers because of fake ones on the market. This of course increases our costs, which is why we regenerate those very seeds,” he adds.

“We look forward to growing at least 50% of all our exported produce especially the chillies since they are in high demand and require a lot of attention. We also plan to set up an international standard pack house.”