Despite this progress, their market has been limited to Uganda because of the hustle involved in obtaining a certificate of conformity to minimum standards from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
“Ethanol is a product in demand. We got a deal to supply a million liters of ethanol in Kenya but we did not have a certificate from UNBS. When we took the samples to Kampala for testing, results took more than a month,” he says.
Although they got the deal, Bukenya says the inconvenience faced was at times unbearable. Fortunately, such scenarios will soon be history following the launch of a modern food-testing laboratory by UNBS in Gulu, which is aimed at bringing services closer to local manufacturers.
The laboratory comes with modern equipment to test both food and non-food products such as edible fats and oils, milk and milk products, water, fruits and vegetables, honey, cereals and cereal products, grains and animal products, and plastics, among others.
The UNBS executive director, David Livingstone Ebiru, commended the Danish government through Trade Mark East Africa for providing the laboratory with equipment worth $4.4m (about Shs 16bn) to the bureau. Before the end of 2022, two more laboratories will be opened in Mbale and Mbarara with a turn-around time of less than one week, from two months, Ebiru promised.
Ebiru admits that the Ugandan market is still saturated with substandard products mainly because of the huge costs involved in obtaining a UNBS Q-Mark such as long distances, high certification costs, and longer turnaround times.
“These laboratories are designed with modern technology that conforms to the East African Community standards, which means that all commodities certified by these labs can be sold within the member states of the East African Community,” Ebiru said at the launch in Gulu last week.
Meanwhile, the Danish ambassador to Uganda, Nicholaj Petersen Hejberg, noted that Ugandans are the most industrious and entrepreneurial people in Africa but are held back by the inability to secure quality goods, which is critical for business growth.
Hejberg urged UNBS to prioritize vulnerable enterprises owned by women and youths in order to produce safe and quality products, which are competitive on the market to improve their livelihood.
He said the new laboratory will help UNBS to facilitate both internal and international trade among all categories of traders in Uganda to improve the quality of local produce and boost production in light of the emerging new markets as a result of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
EXPORT PROMOTION
Experts argue that one of the biggest causes of disease is the quality of the food we eat. On many occasions, therefore, Ugandan food products have been rejected by regional and international markets, citing quality issues. Ebiru, however, says that with these laboratories, improvement in the quality of the Ugandan products is expected because contamination risks will be reduced.
“The quality of samples would be compromised during transportation from remote areas to Kampala, which always affected the results. But when the laboratories are closer, we are assured of perfect results,” he says, adding that the next phase is to introduce fully-equipped mobile laboratories that can give instant results.
Northern Uganda and the West Nile are the biggest producers of honey, sunflower, and sim sim but have lagged due to a lack of value addition and reluctance to certify their products. According to Immaculate Akullo, the proprietor of Archways Honey and Sheer Butter from Lira, the laboratory brings confidence among traders and local manufacturers.
“Some of us have been reluctant to get conformity certificates but now they have made it easier. My dream is to take my honey products to Europe. I once went to Italy with five litres of honey and the money I made was unbelievable. So, if our products get certified, I believe there is a huge market for organic honey,” Akullo says.
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