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CONTINENTAL ISSUE
According to Mr Joseph Kimera, a Project Officer at the Cocoa Development Project, “Commercial exports started in 1917 but the growing of cocoa was abandoned in 1924 due to a drastic drop in international prices. Pests and diseases also attacked the crop. However, it was reintroduced in 1954 in order to diversify export earnings.” By 1965, 462 Hectares of cocoa had been planted in Mukono, Bundibugyo, and Hoima. In 1972, the Cocoa Development Project was formed in the Ministry of Agriculture with the aim of increasing the amount of cocoa grown in the country. This led to an increase in the Cocoa acreage and as General Idi Amin’s government collapsed around him in 1979, the figures from that year show the acreage on which the plant was grown, had increased by 2700 percent to 13,000 Hectares. Swiss Contact estimates that there are currently over 13,000 farmers growing cocoa in Uganda on about 25,000 Hectares of land. These farmers, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics’ Statistical Abstract for the year 2016, earned the country more than $56m (Ushs180bn) in foreign exchange. This is money that can finance the annual budget of Uganda’s Ministry of Information and ICT, and the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Cocoa is one of the top foreign exchange earners in the Agriculture sector. The crop ranks higher than cotton. According to the latest export statistics, Cotton exported in 2015/16 was valued at $20m and is still considered a strategically important crop. The cotton sector is regulated by the Cotton
UGANDAN COCOA
Development Organization to oversee the production, marketing and export of coffee whereas Cocoa, which was introduced around the same time as cotton and earns more for the country, has largely been left in the hands of the private sector. The Government’s intervention has largely been limited to supply of seedlings via the Cocoa Development Project and the Ugandan Army’s Operation wealth creation. Mr David Kyeyune, the project manager at Swiss contact, told this reporter on the sidelines of the Cocoa Producers Association launch that for a while now, the cocoa value chain has been disorganised and marginalised despite fetching quite a significant chunk of foreign exchange. “With difficulty, we have been trying to drive and push for the recognition of the cocoa value chain but nobody could listen because the sector was disjointed and lacked a voice from the players,” he said. Mr John Musisi who works with the Cocoa Development Project blames the sidelining of the Cocoa value chain on the lack of information. “Not many Ugandans know that cocoa is grown in the country. The school’s curriculum mentions that cocoa is grown in Ghana and Nigeria and not in Uganda,” he says. Musisi also goes to argue that land fragmentation by Ugandan farmers has made it impossible for Cocoa to grow on a large scale. “Much of the arable land has been divided into small plots as families expand and smaller units are handed down, often leading to ownership disputes,” he
With difficulty, we have been trying to drive and push for the recognition of the cocoa value chain but nobody could listen because the sector was disjointed and lacked a voice from the players says. However, Mr John Bosco Ochira a Cocoa exporter accuses the government of not being interested in the development of cocoa. “The Uganda Government has been left out of the global Cocoa marketing procedures, international cocoa control bodies such as the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), do not recognize Uganda on the charts of the world cocoa trading terminal in the EU and USA countries, because Uganda as a country of cocoa origin has never bothered to become a member of ICCO by registration, increase Cocoa production, control prices and quality,” he says. He added that Uganda at present production volumes, cannot even meet the supply demands of only one Buyer in Europe, giving the example of ICAM Uganda Limited that is supposed to supply 5000 tonnes of Cocoa beans to ICAM Italy Ltd but can only make 2000 tonnes. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES According to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), the annual turnover of Cocoa is $83bn, with the leading producers being Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Ghana. These supply about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa. The May, 2019 CHERRYAFRICA
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