For the first time, Uganda registered USD 122 million trade surplus with Kenya, with exports worth USD 628 million to and imports worth USD 505 million. Uganda had in the previous year exported goods valued at USD 475 million and imported goods valued at USD 516 million to Kenya, registering USD 41 million in the trade deficit.
Kasaija said due to its low local manufacturing base, Uganda is now a big supermarket for products manufactured in the region and other parts of the world. He was opening the East Africa Economic Outlook Round Table in Kampala.
The agreements are intended to enhance regional integration and economic development in the African, Caribbean and Pacific ACP countries. They are based on the principle of unbalanced market opening, meaning that they provide a better access to the EU market for ACP partners.
Hope Waira, UIAs Senior Investment Executive says while coffee is the leading export commodity at 27 percent, broadcasting equipment follows in second position at 5.4 percent, refined petroleum at 5.1 percent, and cement at 4.1 percent and cars at 3.5 percent.
communication from the Ugandan Embassy in Brussels has since last year indicated that most of the produce exported from Uganda had harmful organisms such as African cotton leaf worm, false codling moth, Trioza SSP and fruit flies, Kyambadde told journalists in Kampala this evening.
Riding on the weakening shilling, coffee exports registered an impressive 9.6 percent growth in volume and 62 percent in value for a ten-month period ending July 2011.
