South Sudan’s Trade and Industry minister William Anyuon Kuol on Tuesday blamed the impounding of the South Sudan fish by Ugandan authorities on the failure to meet export regulations.
Early this week, Ugandan authorities impounded fish worth $1,127,000 belonging to the South Sudanese traders.
The fish, en-route to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was offloaded in Uganda, leaving the traders stranded and concerned about their safety and the perishable goods.
Addressing the parliament, Minister Kuol said the South Sudanese traders had failed to obtain certification to ensure product safety, to avoid the export disruptions in Uganda.
“When they want to import something, they should come to the Ministry and get an import license, because we have two licenses. We have an import license and we have an export license. Mostly, we issue import licenses because most of the food in the country is imported. So for the exports, there are some traders, indigenous traders from South Sudan,” Kuol said.
He said the traders smuggled the fish without a trademark and proper packaging.
“They don’t come to the Ministry to get that license. They just get their goods without a trademark, and proper packaging. When they go outside, they get captured and that is what happened to the fish,” he went on.
The minister disclosed working with the Ugandan Embassy in South Sudan to release the fish unconditionally.