Uganda’s agricultural exports continue to face challenges of meeting the high international standards partly due to lack of information among farmers and exporters.
Government has now set up a web portal with information on such standards for Ugandan exporters. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Tress Bucyanayandi, launched the National Enquiry Point (NEP) on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Standards (SPS) for Uganda at Serena hotel, Kampala, recently.
“We have the responsibility to protect our consumers nationally and internationally against taking drug residues and any food contaminants,” said Mr STress Bucyanayandi.
“Therefore, having this tool is extremely important in our trade locally and internationally,” he added.
Speaking at the launch, the aBi Trust Chief Executive Officer Mr Svend K. Jensen said, through the enquiry point, Ugandan exporters of agricultural produce will have access to information on standards and market requirements of destination countries.
“This will help them to comply and be able to meet global customer requirements, hence increasing export potential and competitiveness of Uganda’s agricultural sector,” said Mr Jensen.
The Executive Director Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Mr Badagawa Gideon said PSFU appreciates the role of SPS in trade to do business well.
“Just like government laws and regulations are very important, standard are very mandatory,” the statement read.
Information on SPS-regulation set for food safety and animal and plant health-that are in place in whatever markets or country they (exporters) are exporting to is available. While sanitary standards refer to human and animal health, phyto-sanitary standards deal with plant health.
How portal works
The web portal is interactive there by enabling the users to log in, check for the notifications about communication as well as standards in various countries and economic communities around the world.
The NEP is accessible via internet as well as by e-mail and SMS by users who will have to register in order to make use of its features. There is both public and private access. While the former is for the users, the latter is for the personnel at the ministry and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) to carry out registration, update data and send notification to users.
The host to the data is the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) which stores the information.
The NEP is jointly operated by MAAIF and PSFU with aBi Trust providing the support. Also in the partnership is the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and plays host to a similar database on related information on technical barriers to trade.
“ During our work with several private sector exporters, aBi Trust realized that NEP was not functioning very well and needed to be supported so that it could provide this service,” remarked Svend K. Jensen.
“ aBi Trust entered a collaborative partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda National Bureau of Standards and Private sector Foundation Uganda to support the operationalisation of the National Enquiry Point on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary measure,” he noted.
Uganda is a signatory to the WTO Agreement on SPS and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), and is obliged operate enquiry points for SPS and TBT
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