Kabagala, Uganda – Kampala’s population is about 1.3 million. The number of organic-only stores in Kampala is 1.
On one hand, this isn’t surprising given that about 39 percent of Kampala’s population lives in absolute poverty and more than 40 percent are unemployed. In the U.S., organic items are typically more expensive than non-organic, for a variety of reasons – supply and demand being among them. So, it stands to reason that poor or lower-class residents in Kampala could not afford to buy even regular products, let alone organic.
On the other hand, prices of organic products here are sometimes on par with non-organic products – and even most products already may be organically grown but not officially certified. Uganda is a country where there is an exceptionally low rate of using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Part is because farmers can’t afford pesticides. Part also is because non-governmental organizations are seeing the potential in this country for natural farming and exports.
According to the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda, synthetic fertilizers are used at the rate of only 1 kilogram per hectare on Ugandan farms. The average for Sub-Saharan Africa is 9 kg per hectare. Consequently, the country has the highest number of certified organic farmers in Africa – 187,000. There are, of course, many more organic farms that will likely never be certified. Right now, Uganda is trying to focus on exporting its organic goods, seeing the opportunity that is there since global demand for organic products grew 170 percent from 2002-2011. It has more than 50 products it could send out of the country, but only eight kinds have been regularly exported to the United States.
Challenges of exporting organic goods from Uganda are: lack of infrastructure, being landlocked, costly transportation and lack of information to farmers.
The one organic-only shop in the Kampala area (there is a handful of major supermarkets in the area that sell some organic goods), has seen a steady increase in consumers. In the last three years, more Ugandans are buying from the store. Before that, the customers were mostly ex-pats, said store manager Judith Nabatanzi. The store carries a range of Ugandan-made products, such as honey, shea butter creams, vanilla beans, cardamom, hibiscus tea, green tea, peanut butter – and even a tea that is said to help recover from malaria, one of Uganda’s biggest health threats. Three times a week, organic farmers bring their fresh goods to the store, which are then delivered to customers who placed their orders on the Internet. It’s a kind of co-op that we see in the U.S.
NOGAMU is an umbrella organization for 18 groups that work to promote organic farming and exports in Uganda. Leaders there say there goal is to storm the global marketplace within the next three years.
