Abstract:

Bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) are an important staple and food security crop to more than 3 million households in Uganda. The current production of bananas and plantains is estimated at 6.99 million tonnes of which 93% is the cooking type. Cooking bananas are grown by 45% of all agricultural households in Uganda on a land area of 579,000 Ha, with an annual production of 6.5 million tonnes. Banana produced is mainly for household consumption with per capita consumption estimated at 172 kg, the highest in the World. Bananas are mainly utilized for their fruit, leaving huge volumes of by-products and wastes which are mostly discarded due to lack of knowledge and suitable technology for their transformation into other value-added products. Efficient utilization of banana by-products and wastes through development of new products can potentially create additional income streams for small holder farmers, create employment opportunities for other value chain actors and increase foreign exchange earnings of the country. The Banana Program of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) identified fresh, peeled, and preserved cooking bananas, banana fibre products, ethanol from corms, and resistant starch with potential for effective commercialization. This report provides results of the market study that was conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the market for the selected products to recommend the effective ways of increasing sales, market share and competitive advantage for those selected products.