The upcoming Agribusiness Congress East Africa in Uganda aims to attract agricultural professionals from throughout the region.

This year’s Agribusiness Congress East Africa is taking place from 29 to 30 November at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Namulonge, Uganda. The Grain Council of Uganda (TGCU) is the official host partner of the event.

“My vision for the agri sector is a national grain sector that supplies the region and is the preferred source of high quality grain. There are opportunities in agriculture with our two seasons (bimodal) and a fast growing population; highest in the world at 3% per annum,” says Chris Kaijuka, TGCU chairman and featured speaker at the congress.

Kaijuka adds that the TGCU is “currently pursuing affordable financing for infrastructure development and working capital for members. We look forward to the launch of the electronic trading on the Uganda National Commodity Exchange where we are shareholders”.

“For us to truly grasp the opportunity for East Africa, and Uganda in particular, which has evolved into the new frontier for food and grain production and the continent’s food basket, we need to come together and take action to move the industry forward. We urge all industry players with a stake in agriculture to take advantage of this golden opportunity to meet with suppliers, buyers and technocrats and contribute to the development debate,” he further says.

CHALLENGES

Tomson Okot, senior programme director at another supporter of the congress, Farm Concern International, will participate in the panel discussion “Identifying East Africa’s investment trends & outlooks for 2018”. This agency concerns itself with the development of agricultural markets across Africa, value chain analysis, profitable smallholder commercialisation and market access.

“With an enormous potential of fertile soils and favourable climate, East Africa has a comparative advantage to produce several agricultural products, process and export as a food basket of the EAC-COMESA region. However, despite its potential, intra-East African Community trade is about US $5.63 billion only (representing only 10% share of intra-EAC trade to the total trade). East African exports of goods and services to the COMESA region and other countries within the East African Community (EAC), is thus still low,” says Okot.

Visit Agribusiness Congress East Africa’s website and follow the expo on Twitter and LinkedIn for more information.
Website: http://www.agri-eastafrica.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AgriBusinessEA
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5115673

DATES AND VENUE

Conference and expo: November 29 and 30, 2017
Venue: National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Gayaza Road Namulonge, Kampala, Uganda

• Agribusiness Congress East Africa is organised by Spintelligent, a well-known trade conference and expo organiser on the continent, with particular expertise and experience in energy, infrastructure development and agricultural events; including the long-running flagship expo and hugely successful Agritech Expo Zambia that takes place annually in Chisamba. This year the fourth edition attracted more than 18 000 visitors. Next year the company is also launching Farm-Tech Expo Kenya.

Also read: Agribusiness Congress East Africa back in November