Kenya and other neighbouring countries import a lot of maize from Uganda
Ugandan Manufacturers Association (UMA) is calling for the total ban of export of unprocessed grains such as maize sunflower, soyabean and wheat.
While interacting with Parliament’s Finance Committee on the External Trade Amendment Bill 2025 recently, John Tusabe, a member of the tax committee at UMA, said that the proposal to impose an export levy of 10 dollars per metric tonne on wheat bran, cotton cake and maize bran is insufficient and should instead be banned.
Tusabe says that the levy in the bill is equivalent to charging 36 shillings per kilogram which is too low to have any effect, noting that currently the price of maize has skyrocketed to 1,400 shillings largely due to unprocessed maize and middlemen who hoard the items and the farmer never benefits from high prices.
Tusabe further says that manufacturers are lacking raw materials for manufacturing cooking oil and animal feeds which is making factories redundant.
He says that a number of factories like Mukwano in Lira have shut down due to scarcity of sunflower and soya beans.
Tusabe says that the promotion of local industries is vital for the sustainable growth of Uganda’s economy to create jobs, increase foreign exchange earnings and build the tax base.
Tony Gadhore from Mukwano industries Uganda limited informed parliament that they have now resorted to importing soya beans from outside Uganda because of scarcity of raw materials which are being exported to neighbouring countries.
