Table 1: Uganda export performance 1998 – 2003 (USD ‘000)

The Country’s exports continue to be predominantly agricultural products, with coffee’s contribution down from 60% in 1999 to 19% in 2003 but still remains the lead export earner. Some manufactures such as soap, beer and plastics are also slowly increasing in the regional markets of EAC and COMESA. Soap exports in the region for example increased from US$334, 000 in 2002 to US$554,000 in 2003 a percentage change of over 30%.

Non-traditional exports (NTE) have for the third year running superceded traditional exports and the trend is expected to grow further. Figure 2 below illustrates the percentage contribution of the two sectors to total exports.  The non traditional sector has contributed over 60% of total export earnings during this period.

Figure 2: Percentage contribution of the two sectors to total exports.

The emerging NTE performance is explained by the intensification of the Government’s export diversification strategy and the positive response of the private sector. Added to this is the focus of the Uganda Export Promotion Board that has taken on the mantle of promoting this sector given that the traditional exports of coffee, tea. Cotton and tobacco are adequately taken care of by statutory and independent organizations. The contribution of USAID through the IDEA project is another important factor with particular reference to the promotion of the flower and vanilla sectors.

The other factor is the depressed world price of Uganda’s traditional exports especially coffee that has remained very stumpy on the world markets.

The country’s major non-traditional export products are fish and fish products that earned USD 87 million in 2003, gold with a total earning of about USD 38 million, cut flowers - USD 22 million, petroleum products-USD 16.5 million, electricity-USD 13 million, maize-13 million and vanilla with about 11.9 million. Others are sesame seeds, beans and other legumes, hides and skins, fruits and vegetables and manufactures such as soap, plastics, beer, metal products and cement.

Special mention must also be made of the textile sector under the AGOA initiative that brought in over USD 1.7 million from exports of garments to the US market in 2003.

Although the above recovery gives the country a ray of hope, it must be born in mind that the country’s exports continue to be overly agricultural raw materials, very often susceptible to weather vagaries and price volatility in the world markets.

Structural inadequacies at the supply side also continue to pose enormous challenges as the export sector is not able to guarantee consistent supplies in the country’s leading markets. There is also the inability of our export sector to rapidly adjust to the increasing market challenges posed by the technical barriers to trade especially quality and standard requirements in the country’s leading markets.

Confronting the overall supply side constraints by removing structural and organizational bottlenecks to production especially  storage and handling, formulating and enforcing policies on quality standards and regulations, adding value to Uganda’s exports as well as undertaking continuous training in export skills development will constitute among others key components of any export strategy for enhancing the country’s export performance.

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