Trade, Tourism and Investment Committee of Parliament says that the Soroti Fruit Factory, the manufacturer of Teju Juice needs the support of government.
Mwine Mpaka, the Committee Chairperson made this remark in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Committee visit to the factory on Friday.
“We have realized their challenges but we need to UDC more funding to upgrade this factory. We have discovered they need a weigh bridge. This affecting also our farmers who are losing their perishable goods and we believe we are going to make a report with necessary recommendations but generally the factory needs more support from Parliament,” he said
During the meeting with the factory and UDC officials, it emerged that there are challenges slowing down the progress of the factory.
These challenges include lack of a weigh bridge which officials say is required for weighing supplies as opposed to manual weighing which they say exposes farmers to the risk of losing their fruits to rot.
But this news site understands that some of these challenges are brought about by the funding gap to Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).
UDC is an investment arm of government and Soroti Fruit Factory is one of its investments.
The operation of the factory, officials say, requires investment but this, UDC officials say is affected by the limited funding to the Corporation.
In the 2019/2020 Financial Year, only Shs 15 billion was approved for UDC, out of the then required Shs 35 billion while in the 2020/21 FY, UDC budgeted for Shs 30 billion. However, only 10 billion has been approved.
Dr. Patrick Birungi, the UDC Executive Director says that whereas he recognizes government’s continued support to the Corporation, the only way for an investment to have a multiplier effect is to have government continue investing. He, thus, called more funding so as to have an impact on the interest of government.
