Kampala The Parliamentary Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry led by Mbarara City South MP Mwine Mpaka on Monday expressed dismay over the poor performance of Soroti fruit factory despite government investing huge sums of money in the factory to support farmers in Teso subregion.
The factory situated in Arapai Sub County, Soroti District was set up in 2016 by the government of Uganda through UDC and the government of Korea through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to add value to the fruits that are abundantly underutilized. This would address the high post-harvest losses, provide market for the farmers’ produce, create employment opportunities along the value chain, thus increased and diversified household incomes with in the greater Teso region.
The factory is managed by Soroti Fruits Ltd (SOFTE) a subsidiary of UDC. UDC owns 80% while Teso farmers represented by Teso Tropical Farmers’ Cooperative Union (TEFCU) own the remaining 20% of the factory.
On Monday, officials from Soroti Fruit Factory led by the Chief Executive Officer Douglas Ndawula Kacucu, Patrick Birungi, the Executive Director UDC and NAADS led by Geoffrey Masereka appeared before the committee to respond to various issues arising from a petition by Jonathan Ebwalu the Soroti West MP on the factory.
The committee discovered that despite government investing 45 billion shillings in the factory, its impact is yet to be felt on the ground.
The MPs wondered why the factory is dealing with middle men who are given about 700 shillings per kilogram and they give the farmers only about 300 shillings a kilogram instead of dealing with the farmers directly.
The committee also discovered that this factory doesn’t have a weigh bridge and that people who take fruits there have to queue for some days since they are manuallly weighed which at times leads the fruits to go back hence causing huge losses to the farmers.
Mwine Mpaka also noted that the committed interacted with leaders of the farmers sometime back and confirmed that the factory isn’t buying their fruits.
It was also discovered that even the spry pumps worth 3 billion shillings that government had donated free of charge were sold to the farmers which is unlawful.
However, the managers among other challenges they are facing, cited political interference which they say results into frequent public misinformation.
“Over audits and investigations from various institutions from various institutions of government also makes the team to concentrate on compliance instead of business objectives.” Noted UDC’s Patrick Birungi
“If we have appropriated money to the factory and it’s not making profit we must investigate and find out why this is happening.” Said Buhweju MP Francis Mwijukye a member of the committee
The committee is today, Tuesday February 15, 2022 set to conduct a visit to the factory in Soroti to ascertain the facts on the ground and is expected to conclude it’s investigations by Thursday this week.
