In 2012 the Korean government, through its development arm, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) offered to provide a turnkey project for the Soroti Fruit Factory in Uganda. However, a delay in the release of the funds by the ministry of finance and the slow implementation of activities, could delay the completion of the factory.
The Memorandum of Understanding required the government of Uganda to establish key infrastructure for construction to take off. According to a report by the Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit (BMAU) by June 2015, the government of Uganda had substantially fulfilled its obligations for the construction of Soroti Fruit Factory.
BMAU reported that the approved budget for the Factory for FY 2015/16 was sh4.4b of which sh913m (20%) was released by 31st December 2015 and sh892m (98%) expended. "Although release of funds was below average, absorption was excellent," BMAU said.
The factory is a proposed Government intervention aimed at supporting value addition in fruit processing for the promotion of industrial growth, income diversification and increasing household incomes in the Teso region.
Teso region has approximately three million fruit trees with a potential production of 600,000 metric tonnes of fruit per year. Despite this potential, Teso region has not seen any investments in fruit processing, whether public or private sector led.
The expected completion of the Soroti Fruit Factory business plan was February 2016.
