Business Development Services session
This morning, I was engaged in an exciting brainstorming session at #Hortifresh Uganda offices, located along Balintuma Rd, Mengo to strategize on the provision of Business Development Services (BDS) for its members, whose number now stands at 180. Hortifresh Uganda is a all-inclusive apex business membership organisation (BMO) for the Fresh Fruits & Vegetables (FFV) sector in Uganda.
Some of the proposed BDS services include among others; Business Management Skills Training, Provision of Market Information, Value Chain Development, Corporate Governance, Market Linkages Facilitation, Access to Markets, Access to Financial Services, Digital Innovations for Service Delivery (Digital Solutions), Business Modelling among others.
The Horticultural Sector in Uganda provides one of the most promising strategic agricultural sectors, improving the nutrition and food security, promotes diversification of exports, provision of raw materials for the agro-based industries, and creation of employment, especially among the youth since the sector deals in high-value crops with wide market opportunities domestically, regionally and internationally.
Available data shows that Uganda earned approx. Euros 350M (UGX 1.4 Trillion) in 2020 placing it as the 2nd largest producer of fresh fruits & vegetables in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria producing approx. 11M tonnes per year.
The sector is currently grappling with challenges i.e. compliance in the export market, lack of finance and agronomical constraints e.g. pests and viruses which affect the quality of the farmers’ produce and getting the right quality of seedlings.
It is against this background that Hortifresh engaged the services of MED Business Consult to map out BDS service interventions for its members.
I look forward working closely with Hortifresh!
Enoth Mbeine
