Uganda’s agricultural exports are often rejected due to excess use of pesticides and contamination/Courtesy photo
The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF)is seeking to borrow up to Euro 192,959,605.41 (UGX 780,906,950,000) from Citibank to finance the proposed Enhancing Agricultural Production, Quality and Standards for Market Access Project.
This followed the tabling of the loan request by Henry Musasizi, Minister of State for Finance, during the 20th October 2025, plenary sitting in which he revealed that Government was prompted to seek for the loan after Uganda’s agricultural products exporters suffered in international markets due to the series of rejection caused by noncompliance to international market requirements.
According to MAAIF, the rejections are caused by the prevalence of pests and diseases detected during random quality checks, excess pesticide/drug residues, food microbial contaminants and environmental contaminants.
Uganda is losing over US$100M (UGX345,486Bn) annually due to rejections of her exports (crop, animal and fisheries products).
The Ministry of Finance has warned that if the current challenges are not addressed urgently, the country could lose important markets for horticultural, fish, animal and grain products.
“This is already happening for markets like EU, Kenya and Oman where for example a certificate of pesticide residue analysis is a key requirement before export. Failure to address the above challenges will, among others, negatively affect Government’s efforts in ensuring social-economic transformation of our Country; result in sustained household poverty levels; affect agricultural commercialisation; limit agro-industrialisation and reduce Uganda’s export potential,” Musasizi explained.
Government further defended the need to secure the loan, noting that following the reinstatement of the national carrier (Uganda Airlines), the Entebbe-London will boost the quantity and quality of products meant for high-niche markets.
“In the same regard, we are already running Uganda Airlines routes to the Middle East, South Africa and Nigeria where we have a demand for fresh organic products from Uganda. All that is required now is to have the mechanisms to certify the quality of these products through an internationally accredited system which will be set up through interventions of this project,” the Minister said in a statement tabled before Parliament.
Government further argued that much as agriculture contributes 42 per cent to Uganda’s total exports, the Country is keen on harnessing higher economic growth from agricultural exports.
However, this dream is being threatened by several challenges including; Inadequate laboratory capacity, Weak enforcement of existing regulations, Poor market information systems, Poor market infrastructure in rural and urban areas, and Poor logistics facilities for product marketing and distribution.
Government has earmarked a number of activities the loan will do including equipping the Airport Pre-Shipment Treatment Facility-Irradiation and the scope of work is intended to add the treatment system to the existing export/import facility at Entebbe airport and the intention is for an area to be provided so a warehouse housing the treatment system can be erected and linked into the existing operational system.
The Ministry of Agriculture also intends to construct and equipping the National Agricultural Diagnostics Laboratory & Support Centre with the aim of creating a central Agricultural Diagnostics Laboratory and Support Centre servicing the Crops, Fish and Livestock divisions of Ministry of Agriculture and the laboratory will have the ability and equipment to research/test all agriculture-related Diagnostics requirements and be split into 2 areas.
The loan will also be used to construct and equip the National Agricultural Food Safety Laboratory & Support Centre and ensure that the facility has the ability to provide services and support across the departments and sectors, with samples being delivered to the laboratory for testing and certification.
The Ministry of Agriculture noted that upon completion, the facility will have the ability to conduct food safety tests with the following laboratory services; Microbiology, Chemicals (aflatoxins, residues, heavy metals), Allergens, Proximate analysis, Organic contamination, Inorganic contamination, Chemical parameters, Physical parameters and Sensory.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the loan will have to be paid in 13 years, including the grace period of 3 years, and the lender will charge arrangement fees to a tune of 0.95% (a one-off payment, which shall become due and payable on the date of execution of the facility documentation), while the Facility Agency Fee is to a tune of Euro 20,000 per annum
The development comes at the time figures from Government indicate that the value of Uganda’s Agricultural exports registered a tremendous growth of 42 percent from US$1.678Billion in 2020/2021 to US$2.453 billion in 202212023, and the performance was attributed to the increased volumes and quality of coffee, dairy, fish and tea exported.
