The State Minister for Trade, Hon Harriet Ntabazi has told Parliament that the country is losing billions in foreign exchange due to lack of the Islamic Halal Policy in the country.
Now the Members of Parliament (MPs) want government to expedite the enactment of regulations on the Islamic Halal policy; it would among others, restrict slaughtering of animals to only Muslims, in order to enable Uganda tap into the lucrative Arab- Islamic beef market.
Currently, slaughtering is not limited to a particular religion and this has, according to the Minister, limited significantly Uganda from earning billions from the Middle East market.
The Minister said the policy in Uganda must be in place to enable all people involved in the meat value chain (production and processing) to possess halal certificates to tap the billions which Uganda is currently losing.
“Qatar has a huge market for beef, mutton and goats meat. Uganda has the beef, goats meat and mutton, but the challenge is only one, we don’t have the halal certificates. We have the goats, cows and sheep slaughtered here, and it is very impossible for them to export live cows, goats or sheep, they don’t want it, they want beef, goats meat and mutton. It is Kenya which has the certificate, so all the cows, goats and sheep in Uganda are being ferried to Kenya to be cut there,” said Ntabazi sadly.
MPs were in agreement with the Minister and Hon Abed Bwanika said that the market is not only in Qatar but Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arabia Emirates among other countries in the Middle East.
“Our meat is one of the highest quality meat in the world, it tastes well, and it has a good aroma that blends well the fat and the meat. And the Arab world is looking for this meat,” said Bwanika.
