By Chris Muhizi for Minembwe Capital News Sunday June/2023.
More than 500 East African agribusinesses now have access to the €4300 billion European Union (EU) market.#Businessinsider reports.
Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and those countries are the recipients of this new direction. Under the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP), which was launched five years ago in 2018, these nations would be permitted to sell their agricultural goods with the EU.
At the virtual launch of MARKUP, the programme officer of the EU representative in Tanzania and the EAC, Jose-Luiz Gonzalez, stated that the EU is eager to strengthen its commercial ties with these East African nations through this project.
He pointed out that the long-standing partnership between the EU and EAC has been very eventful, advantageous to both parties, and filled with its fair share of accomplishments and lessons. The connection, he said, is constantly changing as they make adjustments based on what works and what doesn’t, what needs to be changed, and what needs to stay the same to satisfy the needs of the trading ecosystem of today.
We must take into consideration significant developments, such as the possibility for the Africa Continental Free Trade to increase EAC exports. According to Luiz – Jose, agri-export growth depends on factors like boosting value addition, facilitating access to the right technology, and environmental sustainability and climate-smart agriculture.
Years of trade and development cooperation have shown us that there is no direct correlation between increasing exports and development, according to Jose-Luiz. We encouraged the creation and application of trade information portals as a tool for streamlining export processes and lowering associated expenses.
Associations from the coffee and horticulture industries received training on how to use the trade site to evaluate the worth of each stage involved in exporting their products, he continued.
According to the delegation officer, the EU market is ripe for EAC’s business because to the rising demand for their products, which include tea, coffee, spices, and avocado.
The aforementioned rise in demand for agricultural products from East Africa opens up profitable business options in the EU market.