The Uganda Flowers Export Association has warned that the flower sector may not normalise until 2021, if measures are not taken to mitigate the losses as a result of coronavirus.
Ms Esther Nekambi, the executive director of UFEA (Uganda Flowers Export Association), while speaking to the Daily Monitor, said, “All exporting flower farms have laid off approximately 30 per cent of their workforce due to the inability to sustain salary payments during this pandemic. The floriculture sector has reached a near total collapse, seeing a drop of 90 per cent in the industry’s exports and 50 per cent drop-in price rate.”
According to Ms Nekambi, COVID-19 is heavily affecting the horticulture industry.
She says if there is no intervention, about 10,000 to 15,000 people will be jobless, taxes will be affected and foreign currency worth $84.98m incoming to the economy will be lost.
