Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has moved swiftly to ensure that the inconsistent foreign trade policies from Kenya do not hurt his country.
This was after Kenya announced on Wednesday, March 8, that it would ban the importation of milk powder and rescinded the ban a week later on Wednesday, March 15.
Uganda, Kenya’s greatest trade partner in milk powder, sought an alternative market for their product.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni greets Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers on March 12, 2023.
This was after Kenya announced on Wednesday, March 8, that it would ban the importation of milk powder and rescinded the ban a week later on Wednesday, March 15.
The East African Community member nation will now be selling its milk powder to Algeria.
Museveni and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune agreed that Uganda will be exporting milk powder and other dairy products to the North African country.
The initial decision by Kenya to ban the importation of milk powder was to protect the local economy according to the Kenya Dairy Board.
“In anticipation of the long rains, the government has stopped the importation of milk powders to cushion the industry from surplus production and low producer prices,” the board stated then.
The ban which lasted only a week is now poised to hurt the Kenyan economy in different sectors.
Not only will the country now be competing with the limited commodity from Uganda, but it will also lose a major trading partner according to the deal signed by Museveni and Tebboune.
In exchange for buying dairy products from Uganda, Algeria will now be selling animal health drugs to Uganda.
Uganda has consistently been the largest importer of Kenyan goods and in 2022, it was the second-largest consumer of Kenyan manufactured goods according to Trading Economics.
Kenya exported goods worth Ksh36.2 billion in the first half year of 2022 only bettered by the United States at Ksh38.8 billion.
The figure is set to decrease significantly as Museveni wooed Algeria to invest in his country.
“I urge Algeria to take advantage of Uganda’s profitability by building and locating production facilities in the country which has all the required raw materials that just need value addition.
“They should focus on the ten priority areas of investment which are; coffee value addition, textiles, automobiles, chocolate production using cocoa, footwear, animal feeds, pharmaceutical starch production, fruits processing, human medicines/vaccine production, and tea processing,” Museveni announced during signing of the deal.
