Teso Affairs: The failure of Soroti Fruit Factory Part II – (2-year-old orange concentrate stored without a plan)

“Soroti Fruits Limited was incorporated to add value to fruits that were abundantly underutilised; to address the high post-harvest losses, provide market for the farmers produce, and create employment opportunities along the value chain, thus increased and diversified household incomes within the greater Teso Sub-region” (February, 2022).

The Auditor General Report of December 2022 isn’t spelling out a better story either. The Soroti Fruits Limited is a proof of mismanagement, lack of survey and planning. It is picking the wrong fruit, the wrong type of production and even not considering the markets itself. Nothing has been checked for feasibility or value for money.

That’s why the December 2022 report says this:

“I inspected the inventory stores at the facility and established huge volumes of orange concentrate in the cold room stores. The factory did not have a recognizable packaging line for ready-to-drink juices in PET bottles leading to choking in the Cooling Rooms. The inability to transform Concentrate into marketable juice because of lack of a commercial packaging line for Ready to Drink Juice, has meant that the company keeps huge volumes of Concentrate which are kept in cold rooms, thus increasing costs of production and inadequate products in the market” (OAG, 2022).

He further explains:

“I noted that the factory still had, in store, concentrate and pulp that had been produced close to two years ago and indication of limited market for the juice produced” (OAG, 2022).

If you ever needed a proof of how little viable the production, the factory and the lines made in Soroti. These sorts of statements say it. You don’t need the financial understanding or the liquidity of the company to understand it. It’s expensive to keep such inventory and to use electricity to keep it well. Secondly, the orange concentrate won’t last forever either. Therefore, there are risks involved.

The Soroti Fruit Factory, which was built for the wrong fruit and now also lacks the ability to tap or utilize the concentrate. Because, it doesn’t have the production facilities to bottle or can the goods. That means the State or Government must spend even more on the failure of a project.

This story is a tale of losses, lack of proper consultation and using local knowledge to benefit the famers in Teso. Instead, it has become a money-pit and a loss-loss project. You can certainly wonder who has benefited from this and why it happened in the first place. Because the famers and the ones who was supposed to be the beneficiary ones aren’t. They are the losing end, and neither is the consumer getting viable products to consume. This isn’t value addition, but expenses upon expenses without any sort of revenue. Peace.

Teso Affairs: In the Teso Sub-Region they are eating termites to survive the famine!

“Residents of the hunger stricken areas in Teso region are now forced to eat termites due the current hunger crisis caused by last year and this year’s prolonged drought. Florence Kulume a mother of nine and a resident of Atira sub county in Serere district goes early morning to look for grass, sort it straight before washing it with roots of a certain tree locally known as “Ekoboi” in Ateso which is sour and loved by termites” (Kampala Dispatch – ‘Starving families in Teso resort to eating termites, Karimojong flee to Kenya’ 13.06.2022).

The Teso Sub-Region is hit with food insecurity yet again. It seems like the Teso Affairs and the state haven’t followed previous recommendations or any sort of thing. As the problems of past is revisiting the area. An area where the state has invested in a fruit factory, the Soroti Fruit Factory, but not secured the farmers or the agricultural sector as a whole. Since, within a few years time and a new drought settles in. The same issue of hunger and starvations sets in.

I have to use the sentiment of a farmer from the last time in 2017. Because the situation hasn’t changed but its more of the same.

Still, a local farmer wrote a piece to the Chimp Reports that has some valuable assessments:

“The current hunger in Teso has largely been attributed to drought, while this assertion may hold some truths; there is increasingly evidence that the Ministry of Teso Affairs has not done its part. Hunger in Teso is as a result of both internal and external factors. For many years, the region has been experiencing declining productivity and this was recently worsened by drought. For districts like Ngora, Bukedia and Kumi, land fragmentation has heavily affected productivity” (…) “Clearly besides drought, Teso food systems are in a crisis and our expectation was that the Ministry of Teso affairs working with other stakeholders would work to address this problem. Our view is that hunger should be among the ‘affairs’ that Ministry of Teso Affairs should be engaged in. Agriculture remains a major livelihood for our people in Teso and therefore we require urgent response from Ministry of Teso Affairs on its plans to help our people get out of the current hunger crisis” (Akorikin, 2017).

Minister of State for Teso Affairs, Hon. Christine Aporu Amongin has to accept her faults and lack of good governance. The state haven’t done their due diligence or tried to mitigate it. That’s why it’s happening again after 5 years. We know the state will come with excuses. Last time around another minister blamed the suffering communities for selling their crops and whatnot to get money to stay alive. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect much from the state or the ministries in question.

The Office of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness should together with the Teso Affairs make some mechanisms and help people out. Not only with the direct aid and need food right now. That what they should do and in such a manner that people can eat nutritious food.

Now that it has happen for the second time in 5 years. The state needs to do more than short-term relief. There is a need for more food security mechanisms that actually can help the farmers and the hit communities in the Teso sub-region. Peace.

Reference:

Akorikin, Francis – ‘OPINION: Government Should Review the Relevance of Ministry of Teso Affairs’ (05.05.2017) link: https://www.chimpreports.com/opinion-government-should-review-the-relevance-of-ministry-of-teso-affairs/

Teso Affairs: The failure of Soroti Fruit Factory

“Soroti Fruits Limited was incorporated to add value to fruits that were abundantly underutilised; to address the high post-harvest losses, provide market for the farmers produce, and create employment opportunities along the value chain, thus increased and diversified household incomes within the greater Teso Sub-region” (February, 2022).

This is not a shocker, as the Auditor General of December 2021 already have proven that the investment under Uganda Development Corruption (UDC) proved that the Government of Uganda huge investments into these State Owned Enterprises isn’t only unsuccessful, but blatant cash-grabs and “white-elephants”.

The “Report on the Alleged Mismanagement of Soroti Fruits Limited” only furthers this, as the produced report of February 2022 is no difference from the AG Report from December 2021. Therefore, it is only showing it more direct and one case, which happens to be the Soroti Fruit Factory.

Just read here:

“The Committee made the following observations,’The only mango varieties not taken by the factory are the traditional mangoes which are said to have a lot of fiber which requires several systems to clean. Mangoes are mainly sourced from outside Teso sub-region because the available mango varieties in Teso contain fiber that cannot easily be processed by the current mango line. Whereas oranges are predominantly grown fruits in Teso sub-region, the factory found it economically viable to invest in a mango line as opposed to an orange line because the mango juice is a fast moving product that can sustain the market thus this could be one of the reasons orange growing farmers are frustrated” (February 2022).

“The committee was concerned that Government has so far invested in Teso Fruits Limited a total of UGX 44.1 billion, in addition to the KOICA grant of USD.8million, however, this has not yet yielded any profits and this projects towards the fact that the factory may take a longer period to sustain itself” (February 2022).

What is really striking is that a Fruit Factory for the Teso region, has to “import” or get outside sourced Mangoes, which can work for the production line. As the type, which is mainly produced in the Teso region doesn’t work there. That shouldn’t be the case and shows that the Fruit Processing Plant isn’t scaled or made for the local fruit producers. This is just infuriating and insulting. Because, that is the purpose to value-add on the cash-crops, but in this case. It is instead for outside farmers who has a longer way to the factory, which isn’t the reason for the company to begin with.

On a second note, the Teso region is also producing more oranges, which isn’t even in the works. So, you can wonder what sort of planning that went into it and what sort of analysis of the region was to begin with. This is the Teso Region’s Fruit Factory, but it doesn’t serve the majority of the mango producers or the orange producers in the region. Meaning, they are outsourcing the fruit supply, because it isn’t produced in Teso. That is really impressive and foolish too. Who is this dumb?

Not only the spending, building and wastage of funds only, as it has been a money-pit and total loss from the on-set. This report isn’t painting a perfect picture. Yes, it was a report made because of an expensive road, but uncovers another bitter truth, which I find more interesting. As it is built a fruit factory, which isn’t made for the surrounding farmers of the region. That’s it. Peace.

Auditor General Report says that the government wasted over 200 billion shillings towards investment projects under the UDC

“The Government of Uganda has committed over UGX.223.9Bn in various investment projects under Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) over the years 2016/17 to 2019/20. These investments which are highlighted as government priorities from National Development Plan (NDP I), through to NDP III, are meant to promote social and economic development and contribute to poverty eradication by increasing national and regional economic growth and development” (Auditor General, December 2021).

We know over the years that the National Resistance Movement and the Government of Uganda (GoU) knows all about writing fancy plans, but have no idea about to implement them. In this regard, the GoU have not failed us either. The same government have failed to use the investments and the spending Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) over the years. That is very obvious.

These investments has been questioned before and the lack of results from them has been in the public too. As the factories and companies haven’t delivered as promised. The companies in question is Soroti Fruit Factory, Kigezi Highlands, Mbale Tea Factor, Kayonza tea factory and Atiak Sugar factory. Especially, the Soroti and Atiak factories have caused a stir and headlines in the past. So, the Auditor General is validating what the public already knows, but it is friendly to see the state looking at their lack of results.

Just read this conclusion, it says a lot about the lack of good governance by the NRM:
“Government has invested over UGX.200Bn in various sectors of the economy with the objective of boosting value addition mainly in the agricultural sector. There has been a noted increase in both tea and sugar production. It should however be noted that the levels of outputs and other expected benefits are not commensurate with the investments due to challenges of budgeting and planning, lack of feasibility studies and criteria for allocation of funding, inadequate contractual arrangements to clarify roles and targets and limited oversight and monitoring of investments. There is a risk of failure to achieve the intended objectives. There is still potential for improvement by ensuring UDC staffing levels are increased to undertake the above-mentioned tasks. It is also necessary to enhance autonomy for UDC by providing capitalisation instead of project related financing, so that management is flexible in allocation and re-allocate resources where they are urgently required at the time” (Auditor General, December 2021).

When reading this… you can state this is “white elephants” and could have been produced by any sort of foreign development agency to sell good stories to their donors and well-wishers. The GoU is initially dropping money like a drunk sailor without plans or sufficiently study the needs for it. Secondly, they don’t have secured or checked the plans to ensure the value for money. Alas, they are just printing money and throwing it on strippers. Hoping the stripper will come with the man who is making it rain. It is possibly that the stripper will be picked up by someone else or has a man already. So, why should the enterprise succeed when it’s just mere luck, if you actually get a shot to kiss or spend time with the girl.

In the same fashion the GoU has invested in the UDC. They have thrown money at the wall and hoping that something will stick. This is just running wild… and not putting any real efforts in. As they are just spending money and investing them without any precautions. That should be a worry anyone and the AG couldn’t be any clearer in this instance. Peace.

Teso Sub-Region Famers continues to be forgotten by the Regime!

“The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.”– Patrick Rothfuss

You know there is plenty of issues, when the Member of Parliament David Abala from Ngora County are together with 51 farmers written a petition concerning the Fruit Industry in the Teso Sub-Region. This being a petition from the orange and citrus fruit farmers of Kobwin, Ngora, Kapir, Mukura and Ngora Town Council ClO Ngora District.

What is special is that I have covered this before. As the National Resistance Movement (NRM) have promised for over a decade to build the Soroti Fruit Factory, however, that hasn’t been materialized. This being President Museveni having rallies in the districts or nearby areas. Alas, the public has waited and started to produce this cash-crops as the factory was supposed to come. But with time they have seen it has appeared. This hurting the profitability of the produce and also the lack of progress for the farmers themselves.

We know the state sucks, when the petitioners are writing this:

“This particularly arises from current government policy to encourage farmers in the Teso sub-region to take to Citrus fruit farming on the basis that a fruit processing factory will be built in the sub-region for value addition on their fruits as a means for poverty alleviation and invariably wealth creation”.

Therefore, they have to even petition for it, this after they even demonstrated earlier in the year. When the Teso farmers in the Katakwi District put their produce on the streets paving ways of mangoes, instead of selling it. That happen this May 2018.

Now months after, the Ngora District are reacting to, as they are losing money and being tricked by middle men. As they are asking the Parliament for compensation, streamline the value chain for the farmers and the challenges they are having.

The NRM have now proven twice within a year, that they are not meeting the needs of the Teso Farmers, as the Ngora District are following the Katakwi District, which are both addressing the lack of following up pledges and promises of the past. It is all directed to the pledge of the Fruit Factory in Soroti. Seemingly never happen, except on paper and within the policy documents, but doesn’t get funding from the regime.

The saga continues and it will be fruity ride. Peace.