President Yoweri Museveni met with a delegation of investors from Turkey whom he impressed upon the idea of investing “in Uganda’s vibrant fruit processing sector”.
The delegation that was led by the Turkish Ambassador to Uganda Fikret Kerem Alp met the president at State House Entebbe on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Turkish embassy said it would focus on simsim and coffee initially, before transitioning to other sectors.
“Message well received from His Excellency and we shall focus on coffee, simsim and other food processing sectors for which Turkey is a big export market,” the embassy tweeted Tuesday evening.
“We thanked him for keeping Uganda in peace and our investors safe.”
Uganda currently exports mineral fuels, grains, vegetables, cotton, fish, raw hides and skins, and flowers to Turkey while Turkey supplies plastics, machinery, furniture, iron and steel, milling products, electronics, and so on.
The trade volume between Uganda and Turkey currently stands at $40 million. Recent reports have shown an uptick in trade ties between the two countries, with the number of visa applications to Turkey doubling in 2019 compared to 2018, and tripling in 2020, according to Kerem Alp.
Uganda has strong security ties with Turkey and in March of this year, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, then the Commander of Special Forces met the Turkish ambassador to Uganda and they discussed deepening these ties.
Uganda and Turkey have enjoyed diplomatic relations for over 50 years in various areas including military and defence cooperation, trade, investment, education as well as parliamentary diplomacy.
