Poor packaging affecting local products in the market
The high taxes imposed on packaging materials is believed to be affecting the competitiveness of Ugandan products.
Ugandan products are currently being outcompeted by imported products especially in supermarkets where high end Ugandans shop.
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Bernard Fungo, a lead scientist at the National Agriculture Research Organisations said Ugandan producers are opting for cheap packaging materials due to high taxes.
This is what the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) policy intends to change.
But unfortunately, local manufacturers are faced with high costs of packaging materials.
Fungo said the raw materials are in plenty to produce more than enough but packaging is one of the constraints.
And this has had an impact on the price of the product.
The private sector is also constrained by poor packaging and branding.
Though domestic producers import packaging materials, some local investors have invested in manufacturing of packaging materials, which are quite expensive.
This is making it difficult for locally manufactured products to compete with imported goods that continue to flood supermarkets and other shopping malls.
