Five Uganda companies have been selected to
benefit from CBI’s 5-year Export Development
Programme focused on assisting exporters of natural ingredients from developing countries to market their products on the EU market. The CBI Export Development Programme is a Netherlands’ Government initiative aimed at promoting imports from developing countries and Uganda was in 2002 selected to benefit from the programme through the Uganda Export Promotion Board.

The natural ingredients sector for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry is CBI’s sector of interest in Uganda, and at a workshop in 2002 private companies in the sector were invited to apply for CBI programme support. A follow-up mission was made by Mr. Bert Jan Ottens and Mr Kluas Derbeck of the CBI (30th June to 4th July 2003) to verify the status of the applicant companies against CBI requirements, meet with key institutional stakeholders focused on issues of quality, legislation, finance etc, and also to initiate the sector strategy development process.

The 5 Ugandan companies which qualified for CBI support include:

1. Reco Industries in Kasese for papain
2. Agro Management International Ltd in Kabale for pyrethrum
3. Savannah International Ltd in Kampala for moringa,
4. Savannah Organic Producers in Lira for shea butter,
5. African Bee Keepers in Mityana for bee wax

The CBI Programme support to the companies will take the form of:

„ Product development
„ Certification
„ Quality standards
„ Export market training
„ Sustainable supply mechanisms
„ Appropriate technology
„ Market entry by participation in European trade fairs, and
„ Market consolidation through follow-ups, further technical assistance and repeat market entry activities.

The selection of CBI Programme beneficiaries will be a continuous process, with companies improving their activities to match the CBI requirements and consequently being incorporated into the programme. At a stakeholders meeting held at UEPB, it was agreed to form a Task Force to coordinate sector activities related to the creation of an enabling environment for the trade in natural ingredients and also to share information and ideas with the companies qualified for support under the CBI programme. A 2003/04 Work Plan was developed to implement the proposed activities and this also included the responsible agencies (public and private) for each activity.

CBI and UNCTAD’s BioTrade Programme have agreed to incorporate all the ingredients sector activities into the BioTrade Initiative as a sub-sector.