Raw coffee exports irk Museveni

President Yoweri Museveni yesterday addressed delegates attending the 2nd G-25 Africa Coffee Summit at Speak Resort Munyonyo in Kampala where he discouraged the export of raw coffee and other products from Africa, saying the continent is being cheated. Below is his full speech.

Excellencies, Hon. Ministers, Ladies and gentlemen.

I welcome you most warmly for agreeing to have this Conference in Uganda.

Robusta coffee [emwanyi], is indigenous to Uganda. Coffee is not a food but a beverage.  Nevertheless, that beverage, is quite  useful as a stimulant  that  is friendly to the human body. Especially  people  in  cold  countries, need  this stimulant. It is the richer people, that can afford to  buy  coffee.  People  with  less  incomes, tend  to drink tea ─ another beverage.

Some years ago, the global demand of coffee was 118 million bags of 60kgs each. The global demand is now 160 million bags of  60kgs  each.  Why? Apparently, as already pointed out above, affluence converts some of the tea drinkers into coffee drinkers.  This trend would, therefore, be good for the coffee producing countries like   Uganda.

However, out  of  the  US$ 460 billion  global  coffee value,  the  coffee  producing  countries only  take US$ 25 billion  and  Africa  gets  only  US$2.4 billion, with  US$ 845 million  going  to  Uganda  because  we are now producing 8 million, 60kgs each, bags plus now. A non-coffee producing    country like Germany,  earns  US$ 6.85 billion! This  is  part  of the   iniquities of the present   global   parasitic system. In  the  last  60 years,  I have  been  involved  in  the struggle against this modern slavery for Africa ─ the  curse  of producing  raw-materials for cleverer people  in  the  world  to  add  value  to  those  raw-materials and get much more value from them. A kg of bean coffee of good quality, may go for US$ 2.5 per kg. The same quantity of coffee roasted, ground and  packaged  may  go  for  US$ 40.  This  is  where there  is  massive  haemorrhage  of money  from  the global South to the global North. It is not only the loss of money per kg.  It is also the loss of jobs. If you take the whole spectrum of raw-materials from agriculture, minerals, forest products, etc., the loss to Africa is massive.

That is why the economy of Africa is stunted.  The GDP of the whole massive African continent, with a  population  now  of  about  1.5 billion  people, is USD2.7 trillion. What  are  the  GDP  sizes  of  other, much  smaller,  individual  countries? Here  below are some examples: [1] USA-US$25.46 trillion [2] China-US$17.96 trillion [3] Japan-US$4.23 trillion [4] Germany-US$ 4.07 trillion [5] India-US$3.38 trillion

Even    little    South    Korea    has    a GDP of USD 1.67 trillion,  nearing  the  size  of  the  African GDP.  It  must  be  pointed   out  that  even  this USD 2.7 trillion is a recent development because the African economies are said to be growing at a fast rate  compared  to  others  in  the  world.  Otherwise, Africa’s GDP was only USD 500 billion some years ago. However, much of that growth may   be quantitative, not qualitative ─ producing more raw-materials.

Right  from  the student  days  in  our  Movement  in the 1960s, we put forward the strategy of building Uganda’s  economy  as  an  Independent,  self-sustaining  one,  with  both  vertical  and  horizontal integration.

We  have succeeded  somehow  in  some  sectors, such as the dairy, fisheries, textiles, sugar, leather, etc., sectors.  However, in many sectors, including the coffee sector, we are still losing a lot of money and jobs, on account of this distortion.  That is why I banned completely, some years ago, the export of unprocessed  minerals  such  as  iron-ore, blister copper  [94%   pure],  wolfram,   tin-ore, lithium, uranium, etc.  You have heard of the quarrels going on in Niger, in West  Africa,  about  uranium  being taken  to  Europe when  the  kilowatt  per  capita  in Niger  is 51.The  GDP of  Niger  is  USD613.93. Uganda’s kilowatt hour per capita is now 300; that of the  United  States  of  America  is  12,000  and Iceland is 54,924. Uganda has got alot of uranium.  Some  years  ago,  a  Western  company  came  and proposed  to  mine  the  uranium. I  asked  them: “Mine it and take it where?” They said: “Export it.” I asked them: “Export it for what purposes?” They told me that it was for the purposes of generating nuclear energy for electricity and other uses such as medicine,  vector  control,  etc. I, then, asked them: “Have you heard a rumour that there are human beings here in Uganda who need electricity, nuclear medicine and vector control services? Why don’t you propose to build that capacity here for the benefit of these human beings who live in Uganda and, maybe, we can  put  aside  some quantity of uranium for supporting the economies of our friends in the West?” They never came back. We have now   agreed   with the Russians and Koreans to build two nuclear  power  stations  for electricity of 15,600mgws.

The biggest apposition of our plan of building an integrated  national economy, has  been, mainly, internal, from  some  elements of  the  political and bureaucratic  classes  who  perform  the  role  of  the comprador  bourgeoisie  ─  agents  of  foreign interests,  Mao  Tse  Tung  talked  about  in China. Unlike the national  bourgeoisie  who  build  our economy, the comprador bourgeoisie ]raw-materials exporters, importers of foreign products that can be made here, commission agents], bleed our economy. The national bourgeoisie [manufacturers, hotel  owners, tourism operators, professional service providers such as doctors who treat people here instead of patients going out for treatment, internal distributors of our products such as food], build our economy.

Therefore, we the raw-materials  producers, we need to  conduct internal struggles in our respective  countries  to  add  value  to  these  raw-materials, including coffee ─ so that we earn more from our sweat and create more jobs for our youth instead  of  dying  in  the Mediterranean  going  to Europe.  We also need to sensitize our partners in the  countries  that  have  been  buying  our  raw-materials    at    semi-slave    prices, that their economics  is  defective.  What  will  the  USA  or Europe  or  Asia  lose,  if  Africa  sells  added  value coffee to them instead of the raw-material form and earn  more  money? What  if  the  value  addition  is done to  the  other  raw-materials─  copper,  gold, iron-ore, lithium, etc.? Money to Africa, will mean higher purchasing power for Africa.  The Africans who now  lack  electricity, will  be  able  to  afford  to pay  for  electricity. Where  will  the  turbines  come from? Will they not come from Europe, USA, Russia, China, or from  other  partners? How  can  greed obscure rationality to such an extent?

Global affluence will benefit everybody.  Down with Imperialism,  down  with  parasitism, long live the win-win strategy. I thank you.

https://thecooperator.news/museveni-donates-shs-360mln-to-vslas-in-gulu-city/

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