Vanilla

Farmers under their umbrella body, Vanilla Exporter`s Association demand for a policy that will help to guide vanilla dealers in the country. While meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Animal industry and Fisheries, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja they requested Government to consider reviving vanilla crop in Uganda, because the prices have skyrocketed in the recent past. They said a kilo of vanilla is now 130,000 shillings, hence a need for government to mobilize farmers to grow vanilla again.

However, minister Ssempijja promised to mobilize farmers to grow vanilla in large quantity as  part of the strategy to drive the economy to middle income status as it’s the case in Madagascar.

In 2003, Uganda experienced a vanilla price boom, when farmers earned up to Shs150, 000 for a kilogram of fresh green beans. However, during the bust, the prices plunged to as low as 5,000 shillings forcing many farmers to abandon growing of the spice crop.

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Government have been asked to focus on re-adjusting economic policies to favour industrialization and export trade in Uganda. While opening the high level policy dialogue on export development and promotion in Uganda at the president’s office in Kampala, the state minister economic monitoring Henry Banyenzaki said that the 4 trillion shillings balance of payment deficit the country has is unbearable. He said that more exports are required to reduce on the country’s trade deficit.

The country’s balance of payment  deficit occurs when a country’s total imports of goods, services and transfers are greater than the country’s total export of goods, services and transfers. Banyenzaki said that government must come up with outright reforms to safe guard local industries as well as funding them to ensure production of quality products that can meet international standard. He said that although government is running a liberalized economy the importation of cheap goods like used clothes threatens textile industries product market yet Uganda has a potential in that sector

The dialogue is geared towards getting a solution on how to strengthen the performance of Uganda’s export sector.

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Members of Parliament have condemned government for overlooking the parliament resolution which banned the export of domestic workers. The speaker of parliament said that government is exporting domestic workers to Saudi Arabia yet it will not be able to supervise them. She questioned whether government is filling the gaps of countries which have stopped supplying domestic workers to the Middle East.

MPs  who include  Bernard Atiku Beatrice Anywar  said that girls are taken out as sex slaves though they are recruited  for doing other work. The woman MP for Kitgum District, Beatrice Anywar, said that, women should stand and protest the issue of subjecting girls to sex trade in other countries so as the dignity of women is restored. Anywar said that government is ignoring companies that are exporting women as sex slaves yet these companies are owned by government officials.

The Member of Parliament for Budadiri West, Nathan Nandala Mafabi, testified before parliament that Ugandan girls in Dubai who were taken as domestic workers are used as sex slaves for dogs. The opposition Chief Whip Cecilia Ogwal said that Ugandan women are being exported under the watchful eye of the Government.

However the Minister of State for planning David Bahati said that government, through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, will table before parliament on Wednesday this week  the Memorandum of understanding signed between Saudi Arabia and government over export of labour.

Parliament in 2014, after numerous complaints of mistreating domestic workers in foreign countries especially women, banned any further export of domestic workers and it seems government did not take this as binding since parliament resolutions to government are entirely advisory.

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