Uganda Agro-Machine Fabricators Eye Regional Market

Tuesday, 1st March, 2011

MAKERS of agro-processing machines have shifted their focus to the regional market.

Fred Kavuma, the technical director at Central Engineering workshop in Kalerwe on Gayaza Road, said they have improved locally-made agro-processing machinery, attracting regional demand.

The fabricators make agro-processing machines like maize mills, wheat mixer, molders and saw mills of all sizes, he said.

“We have started exporting our products to Rwanda and Burundi, where the demand for our processors is increasing.

“But we have the capacity to satisfy the local and regional markets,” Juma Ssekamatte, a fabricator at Kalerwe, said.

Kavuma, however, said the sector was facing a challenge of unreliable and expensive power, which affects their output and raises the cost of production.

Ssekamate added that they make machinery that can be run by 70 horsepower mortars and process about 30 bags of 100kg of maize in an hour.

A unit is sold at about sh6m locally.

The raw materials used include those sold in ordinary hardware, used steal

By Samuel Balagadde: The New Vision Newspaper