UK firm eyes local fertilizer industry
President Museveni chats with part of the delegation as Lord Hain Neath (3rd R) a member-of the United Kingdom House of Lords and Dr. Chris Cleverly (R) look on during the meeting in Rwakitura
KAMPALA - African Potash, a Company listed on the London Stock Market is interested in investing in the Ugandan manufacturing sector and is interested in making fertliser to boost the local agriculture sector.
African Potash director, Lord Peter Hain on Sunday met president Museveni at his country home in Rwakitura and indicated the company’s interest to invest in the fertilizer development in Uganda with the aim of making the country a hub for fertilizer manufacturing and distribution throughout the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region countries.
Lord Hain, who is also who is also a member of the United Kingdom House of Lords noted that given the available agricultural potential in Uganda in particular and the African continent as a whole, if farmers are availed with cheap fertilizers, the African continent will be guaranteed of food security and also a surplus for export to the rest of the world. He said that with the increasing population in the world, especially in India and China, food scarcity was becoming a real world threat.
Lord Hain was accompanied by African Potash Executive Chairman Dr. Chris Cleverly and Prince Hassan Kimbugwe, the company’s local promoter.
According to Dr. Cleverly, initial research done by the company indicated that Ugandan farmers are buying fertilizer at prices as high as $ 2000 per tonne, when it should be less than $ 600 in other markets.
“Uganda can be a food basket for the region and the world and if the government invested in making cheap fertliser for farmers, it would boost the production more than ten times,” Mer Cleverly said in an interview.
According to s state house press release, Mr Museveni welcomed Lord Hain’s commitment to invest in Uganda and said that the country has enough reserves to make all the needed fertilizers that would take the entire African continent 100 years to exhaust. He added that Uganda is already number 2 producer of bananas without using fertilizers. He observed that the country would be number one in the world in the production of bananas if farmers made use of fertilizers.
