NTUNGAMO — Former Ntungamo District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Joselyn Bata Kamateneti, has shifted her focus to establishing egg processing factories that will convert surplus eggs into powdered and liquid forms. She says the move will transform Uganda’s poultry sector and improve nutrition.
Speaking during a Radio talk show, Hon. Kamateneti said the value-addition initiative is intended to stabilize egg prices for poultry farmers, create employment opportunities, strengthen the poultry value chain, and help address child malnutrition. She noted it will particularly benefit school-going children, as well as patients suffering from sickle cell disease and cancer in Uganda and across Africa.
She emphasized that Uganda should prioritize industrialization and value addition rather than exporting raw agricultural products and importing finished goods at higher costs.
Hon. Kamateneti recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Kenya suspended imports of Ugandan eggs. This left many poultry farmers with excess produce and caused egg prices to fall sharply to as low as Shs5,000 per tray.
She said such losses can be avoided by processing excess eggs into products with a longer shelf life.
According to Kamateneti, only a handful of countries including Brazil, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Italy have established egg powder industries.
She argued that Uganda should invest in a similar industry to support school feeding programmes by providing affordable, shelf-stable egg powder, similar to milk powder.
She revealed that, with support from President Yoweri Museveni, she travelled to Italy to receive training in egg powder production.
The initiative, she said, seeks to produce pasteurized egg powder that can help reduce child stunting while expanding access to nutritious food.
Kamateneti questioned why some nutrition centers in Uganda import egg powder from India at a cost of about US$23 per kilogram, despite the availability of locally produced eggs, where a tray of 30 eggs costs approximately Shs15,000.
She disclosed that she has already secured contracts to supply egg powder to the Uganda Cancer Institute, the Sickle Cell Centre, and Butabika National Referral Hospital.
She said investment in egg processing and value addition would generate employment opportunities for Uganda’s growing youthful population while increasing government revenue through industrial development.
Kamateneti further noted that Uganda has more than 50 million laying birds and produces approximately 907 million eggs annually, which she said is sufficient to support a domestic egg-processing industry.
She also commended the NRM government, led by President Yoweri Museveni, for promoting value addition through programs such as the Parish Development Model, PDM, and investments in coffee processing at Inspire Africa in Rwashamaire.
Hon. Kamateneti expressed optimism that the establishment of an egg powder industry would be another milestone in Uganda’s agro-industrial transformation.
END.
