Workers at Valley Wines show Germany ambassador, Reihard Buchholz how it is done

By Chris Ahimbisibwe

Lack of specialists in winery is a stumbling block to farmers engaged in grape vine farming in Bushenyi district.

William Mukaira, the chairperson of the grape farmers said despite efforts to increase grapevine acreage from about 10 acres to over 30 acres in the last three years, lack of appropriate equipment, experts and chemicals were still a problem.

“We have increased our output from 2,500 litres in 2007 to about 10,000 litres currently and we hope to increase our annual production to about 100,000 litres in the coming three years,” he said.

While taking Reihard Buchholz, the Germany ambassador to Uganda, around Valley Wines near Bushenyi town recently, Mukaira, the Valley wines director, said lack of trained manpower to process wine was affecting production.

He said the high taxes on imported machinery was also a big problem. “Recently I imported a few items to boost the wine production at a cost of sh14m but I ended up paying sh18.4m because of taxes.”

Mukaira said such initiative should be supported since it is a project that is in line with the Government policy of reducing poverty and increasing revenue for the country in the long run.

He said the Germany government sent an expert from Senior Expert Service, the Germany arm for international development to give assistance. Through this, the winery was able to introduce new grape varieties, obtain wine yeast which is not available in Uganda, put up the winery factory, introduce a locally made crushing and pressing machine, make juice, carry out weed control, grape vine spacing and pruning. They also got advice on pest control, chemical spraying, harvesting, fermentation, wine finishing and training of staff.

“We request for the services of a wine specialist to help in the better wine processing methods for us to achieve the international standards,” Mukaira said.

He said they needed external assistance in terms of technical experts and monetary top-ups.

“The system being used is still slow and tedious, expensive and far from modern processing techniques,” Mukaira said, as he showed the ambassador the wooden and plastic containers they use to preserve the juice.

“We have made efforts to identify the appropriate equipment in Kampala and Nairobi but what we have seen is either of poor quality or very expensive and does not match what the wine producers in countries such as Germany use,” he said.

He said they needed between sh300m and sh400m, excluding shipment costs, to purchase a crushing and pressing machine and a tank.

The state minister for health, Dr. Richard Nduhura, who is also the area MP, lamented that in this era of technology, most farmers here still did their work manually.

“We cherish the co-operation we have enjoyed with Germany. You have assisted us in many sectors but we still need more support in the area of technology,” Nduhura said.

He called for efforts to improve winery from manual to mechanised production.

Buchholz applauded Mukaira for opening up a new way for agricultural diversification: “Though it’s difficult, you are on the right track,” he said. He urged him to bring more farmers on board and build a stronger association to enable them lobby for support.