Briquettes fail to kick charcoal out of market

As the world moves to embrace ecologically-friendly sources of energy, entrepreneurs in Teso Sub-region, who had invested in charcoal briquette-making machines, have opted out of business over lack of market and high taxes.

Briquettes are a substitute for charcoal to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change that are partly a result of cutting down trees for charcoal burning. They are derived from ground nuts, rice, maize and other agricultural husks.

Daily Monitor has established that several people who had taken to the business in Teso and across the country have closed.

Ms Betty Ikalany of Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies in Soroti Town, who owns a briquette-making plant in Soroti Town, on Saturday said despite venturing into this ecologically-friendly business, she stopped production due to lack of market.

Ms Ikalany said most town dwellers are ignorant and unwilling to abandon the use of charcoal.

“Since I ventured into briquette production in 2012, I have been struggling because urban dwellers are still glued to the use of ordinary charcoal. For every 300 metres one moves, one sees ordinary charcoal at the roadside being sold, that is not the case for briquettes,” she said.

Ms Ikalany said she opted to close shop last year after her only consumers - the schools - stopped buying briquettes.

Interest in briquettes 

Ms Ikalany said she used to watch how people would ordinarily make briquettes on TV, then in 2012 she opted to acquire a machine. She registered her company but the journey has not been as rosy as she had thought.

The briquette-maker embarked on sensitising schools on the benefits of briquettes, adding that a few picked up the idea, and contracted her. However, with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and high taxes, her business has crashed.

“I am hopeful. With European embassies promising to support me and popularise the briquettes, their message may catch the local community which is still accustomed to the use of ordinary charcoal,” Ms Ikalany said.

The 43-year-old said she tried recruiting sales agents to expand the market, but people’s attitude is to blame.

She asked government to emulate Kenya and provide tax exemptions for the clean energy. 

Ms Ikalany said if only this clean-cooking initiative could be picked up, the country would be able to secure the remaining tree cover.

“I feel bad seeing trucks of charcoal, bags of charcoal along the roadside when we can turn to the use of briquettes which is ecologically friendly. I know I am doing business, but this business can save this country from going bare,” she said.

Closing business

In Kumi Town, two retired mechanical engineers, who had opted to use briquettes, have since 2017 opted out for other businesses after making losses.

Mr Moses Okello, a retired mechanical engineer, told Daily Monitor in an interview that he acquired charcoal briquette machines at Shs15m in 2016 from fabricators in Naivasha, Kenya, but after making close to 16 tonnes of briquettes from groundnut husks, he only managed to sell one tonne.

“I put in close to Shs5m in buying cassava flour used for binding the husks after they are carbonated inside the kilns, I hardly got back Shs1m from the sale of briquettes,” Mr Okello said, adding that in 2018, he opted to  conduct a market research in Kampala, and discovered that businesses were collapsing because most people preferred charcoal.

Mr Okello said his friend in Ndeeba, Kampala, Hajj Mohammed Waswa, who sold the idea to him, has also since closed business.

Mr Ahamed Mukasa, a retired water engineer in Soroti Town, said he purchased the briquette-making machines in 2014, but only manufactured briquettes for two years.

He added that he bought machines and kilns at Shs19m but the business never picked up.

“I had more than 12 tonnes of charcoal briquettes and I sold nothing since 2014. I instead resorted to using them for cooking at home, and they are still there in the store,” Mr Mukasa said.

He said the machines are in his compound depreciating, adding that he may only resume after studying the market dynamics in Kampala.

Benefits

Mr Okello said besides not emitting smoke, briquettes burn better than ordinary charcoal, making them a clean cooking alternative.

He said the efficiency of briquettes in charcoal stoves is also high.

“One bigger briquette of one kilogramme is enough to prepare breakfast, lunch and supper. You don’t need to add another briquette,” he said.

How briquettes are made

Mr Mukasa said groundnuts or rice husks are carbonated inside the kilns and after they turn black, the husks, which have been carbonated, are bound using cassava flour porridge, then compressed to briquettes of different sizes.

He said this process is done by a briquette compressor machine, which is categorised in different sizes for home and institutional use.

Mr Mukasa said the briquettes are later dried and packed in sacks.

“The only benefit I have is that since 2014, I have not bought charcoal. What I failed to sell is what I am using in the kitchen, and now with the Lent season, my family is using the unsold charcoal briquettes to prepare food for Muslims who are unable to afford food,” he said.

Mr Mukasa said the future of charcoal briquettes is uncertain unless global agencies, involved in climate change, support dealers and create awareness of the dangers of continued use of ordinary charcoal.

He added some Somali entrepreneurs based in Kenya promised to market him, but he has never received any formal communication since 2018.

No critical mass 

Mr Davidson Madira, the coordinator for Uganda National Alliance on Clean Cooking (UNACC), on Sunday said briquette makers in Uganda are so negligible that the government finds it hard to exempt them from taxes.

“As UNACC, we have succeeded in securing or exempting taxes from solar, liquid petroleum gas,” Mr Madira said.

He said more than 80 per cent of people in greater Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono areas are still accustomed to use of ordinary charcoal.

“All people who had seen business ideas in briquettes in metropolitan Kampala have closed because the market is lacking. It is now even difficult to start negotiating with URA, because hardly one per cent of households in the country use them,” he said.

Mr Madira said the people behind the briquette initiative need support because each day, more than four metric tonnes of charcoal are said to be consumed across the country, putting a toll on the forest cover.

Mr Madira said to substitute the use of charcoal, UNACC has tried to negotiate with government to remove taxes on liquid petroleum gas, and this will end the use of charcoal soon when Parliament approves.

Mr Patrick Edotu, the environment officer for Soroti District, said approximately 30 metric tonnes of charcoal exit both Teso and Karamoja each year, saying the innovators of charcoal briquettes need to be supported.