Uganda Trade Ministry to build 70 new warehouses for Farmers

Tuesday June 28, 2011

The Government is to build 70 warehouses across the country to boost the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS). The move is expected to help farmers improve post-harvest handling and marketing systems.

Amelia Kyambadde, the trade and industry minister, explained recently that there will be 10 main warehouses with a 5,000-tonne capacity and another 60 to store produce for farmers from distant locations before its transferred to the main warehouses.

“We are going to focus on WRS to help farmers ensure quality while harvesting. “This will also enable them to sell produce directly to the final buyers instead of middlemen,” Kyambadde said in a message read by Ambassador Julius Onen, the permanent secretary.

This was at the opening of the district commercial officers’ forum on dissemination of trade policy guidelines for the supervision and reporting. WRS allows farmers to deposit produce with licensed warehouses.

The depositors are issued with a receipt detailing the deposits and its monetary value.

The holders can use the receipts as collateral to borrow up to 60% of the value of their produce from financial institutions.

By David Sempijja : The New Vision Newspaper