The reason Uganda Breweries is the only big buyer right now who is very willing to buy our farmers sorghum even without a plant, isn’t because Uganda Breweries cleans this sorghum themselves. It is because they work with a third party processor called GrainPulse who cleans this sorghum on behalf of UBL. Even the sorghum from our own project that we sell to UBL, GrainPulse is where we take it, from where it is then taken to UBL.
I can’t think of other institutional buyers of sorghum who are willing to accept us as a supplier under the same setup that we are working with UBL. This all leaves us with only one buyer.
The other thing is pricing. If GrainPulse was owned by our project, or if we had a grain cleaning facility like the one that Ruth (in Soroti) has, the price that Uganda Breweries pays for our farmers’ sorghum per kg would be higher than the Ugx1,300 − 1,500 that they are paying us now. Because that sorghum would be on a standard where it is ready for brewing.
The other thing is transport. If we have a grain cleaning facility of our own, with ample storage (e.g. a 1000 ton silo), some big buyers (like the WFP) who have their own transport may be able to come for our produce at our plant in Kamuli, saving us transport.
To add to my previous message, Roddy (edited):
The reason Uganda Breweries is the only big buyer right now who is very willing to buy our farmers sorghum even without a plant, isn’t because Uganda Breweries cleans this sorghum themselves. It is because they work with a third party processor called GrainPulse who cleans this sorghum on behalf of UBL. Even the sorghum from our own project that we sell to UBL, GrainPulse is where we take it, from where it is then taken to UBL.
I can’t think of other institutional buyers of sorghum who are willing to accept us as a supplier under the same setup that we are working with UBL. This all leaves us with only one buyer.
The other thing is pricing. If GrainPulse was owned by our project, or if we had a grain cleaning facility like the one that Ruth (in Soroti) has, the price that Uganda Breweries pays for our farmers’ sorghum per kg would be higher than the Ugx1,300 − 1,500 that they are paying us now. Because that sorghum would be on a standard where it is ready for brewing.
The other thing is transport. If we have a grain cleaning facility of our own, with ample storage (e.g. a 1000 ton silo), some big buyers (like the WFP) who have their own transport may be able to come for our produce at our plant in Kamuli, saving us transport.