Uganda: no restrictions on pork imports

The Ugandan Department of Agriculture said that it has been under pressure from pig producers throughout he country, who continue to call upon the government for a ban – to protect the country’s still fledgling pigmeat processing sector.


Resistance
The Ugandan government however, said that it will continue to resist this call, claiming that most of the imported pigmeat is in processed form, and that the country does not produce enough pigmeat in this form, so that a stoppage of imports will not help the consumers very much, apart from substancially raising the prices of processed pigmeat on the domestic market due to a resulting scarcity.


The Ugandan government’s view is that, as the country’s production of processed pigmeat items continues to go up, and producing units become more cost-effective, the quality and quantity of domestically produced processed pigmeat will go up, prices will go down.


As a result, then locally produced processed pig items will be able to compete more effectively with imported pigmeat items, and with time locally produced pig items will be able to replace imports.


Existing laws
The Department of Agriculture says that although no new legislation is required as per now, to control pigmeat imports, laws already exist which can be used to stop or restrict imports of pigmeat and other items, such as pig breeding stock.


This can be done by stopping imports from countries which may be viewed as a possible health risk to the Ugandan pig stock population and the people of Uganda.


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