President Yoweri Museveni has asked investors from Serbia to come and invest in Uganda. Speaking to the business community participating in the Uganda Exhibition at the Mona Plaza Hotel in Belgrade on July 30, 2023, the head-of-state encouraged them to come and grab the investment opportunities in the Pearl of Africa.
Addressing the audience, which included the private sector of Serbia and the Balkans region, the President shared extensively the need for the production and marketing of the organic products Uganda produces for the market.
He said these are products which the world has until recently not known much about, adding that Uganda can literally grow anything because of its ideal climate and its relative low production cost along with her two seasons of rain that lessen the burden of heavy usage of fertilizers and chemicals needed in most parts of the world.
“These attributes make Uganda a reliable and predictable trading partner and a good source of low-cost organic food for societies that need to store food in winter like Serbia and many other parts of Europe. The fruits and vegetables we eat, the ancient grains we produce, the fresh water fish such as the rare Nile perch, the low cholesterol yellow fat beef of the ancient Ankore cow, the coffees, teas whose pictures I shared you in my video, grow naturally and easily. It is what our people eat. Therefore, we want to export to you what we use in our own kitchens and dining tables. It is like having a home cooked meal in your corner supermarket in Belgrade,” he said.
The President added: “On account of our position on the equator and a large layer of volcanic soils across the country, we are able to grow on both high and low altitudes organic Arabica coffees, teas, bananas, pineapples, avocados, vanillas etc. I therefore, thank the supermarket here called DIS which has agreed to stock our products directly. Your customers will not regret your decision. They will fall in love with our healthy mangoes, avocados, apple bananas, pineapples etc.”
He told the businesspeople that that his advisory committee on exports and Industry and our Investment Agency, have prepared bankable ‘ready to invest opportunities’ in agricultural processing, mining and mineral beneficiation, fertilizers, grain production and storage, pharmaceuticals and health products and production of fast-moving consumer goods.
These products, he said, will be consumed by the entire East African market which has a common tariff system, skill and technology with Uganda. These will also be consumed by the Africa market that is rapidly expanding.
“My government will give you all the tax incentives that you require including provision of land for manufacturing, building hotels near game parks to welcome you as our visitors and we allow full repatriation of your profits quickly wherever and in whatever field of investment you will pick interest in. Many of our sectors have huge room for expansion by a big margin and a high return on investment. If I take the case of milk for an expanding population of Uganda alone, we are only producing 5 billion litres but actual exploitable consumption in a few years could be 14 billion litres. The entire eco-system of dairy from the farm, to processing, distribution and logistics is alive and ready to fresh investment that can bring that industry to more than $5b. For example, we still have limited powder production yet we have bilateral agreements with just one country in North Africa, worth $500m annually. What I say of Dairy can be said for grains, fruits, vegetables, the steel industry, cement, fertilizers etc,” Museveni said.
Value added coffee
The President vouched for Ugandan coffee in Serbia, saying it is original without counterfeit.
“You already can see that some young companies in Uganda are beginning to roast and export value added coffees here but we want this effort expanded so that the coffee you drink comes directly from our natural organic gardens not mixed from other parts of the world. I assume you might be drinking Uganda coffee but mostly mixed in Trieste or Bologna in Italy or Hamburg in Germany. I advise that you shouldn’t drink mixed coffees here when you have one directly from the origins of all Robusta coffees in the world – Kibaale forest of Uganda! Why give your customers counterfeits when the authentic has arrived in your city?” he said.
“In the Memoranda we have shared and signed between our two countries, we would like to ask that we deal with the matter of taxes on imports of food to Serbia and products from Serbia into Uganda. I want us to share business development research, food and product standards, laboratories, education and training along with person-to-person exchange with Serbia and the region. We should fully embrace each other so that our people utilize the long-standing relationships we have built since 1963, to build a strong trading platform that will help with many other diplomatic and global issues on which we share values and a voice as Uganda and Serbia. I appeal to the consumers in the city of Belgrade, to utilize the Uganda Trade Hub at the downtown waterfront which we will be opening later in the day. I want to have more Serbians and people from this region come to Uganda and invest,” he assured.