Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has flagged off the country's first dried chili shipment to China, one year after the two countries signed a bilateral agreement allowing the agricultural product to access the Chinese market.

KAMULI, Uganda, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has flagged off the country's first dried chili shipment to China, one year after the two countries signed a bilateral agreement allowing the agricultural product to access the Chinese market.

Museveni flagged off the 11-tonne consignment on Thursday in the eastern district of Kamuli, where some local communities have been growing the crop for the past months in collaboration with the China-Uganda Agricultural Cooperation Industrial Park, with support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-China-Uganda South-South Cooperation (SSC) project.

While hailing China for consistently working with Africa for common development, Museveni urged more farmers to grow the cash crop, which he described as a goldmine that can create wealth and fight poverty.

"They (China) supported us during the anti-colonial struggles. Now we are trading very closely with them and on an equal basis. They are not arrogant. So we are going to go far," Museveni said.

During the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in September 2024, Uganda and China signed protocols for the export of dried chili peppers and wild aquatic products to China. In June, China also announced zero-tariff treatment to 100 percent of tariff lines for all 53 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China.

As of August, the total trade volume between China and Uganda reached a record 1.31 billion U.S. dollars, Chinese Ambassador to Uganda Zhang Lizhong said at the flag-off event. "Among them, China's imports from Uganda amounted to approximately 100 million U.S. dollars, with an increase of 100.1 percent," said the envoy.

He said the flag-off marks another fruitful achievement of bilateral cooperation, adding that China has, since 2012, sent more than 50 agricultural experts to Uganda through the FAO-China-Uganda SSC project and provided technical training and guidance to over 20,000 local farmers.

According to Zhang Xiaoqiang, team leader of the Chinese agricultural experts under Phase III of the project, the flag-off is a culmination of joint efforts between the industrial park and the Chinese agricultural experts.

"We provide cooperating farmers with high-quality chili seeds and cultivation techniques. Farmers carry out the cultivation, follow our guidance and production standards, and then the industrial park purchases the harvest and supplies qualified chili products to the Chinese market," said Zhang, noting that the model allows for effective know-how transfer and income generation.

The China-Uganda Agricultural Cooperation Industrial Park, located in Luweero, central Uganda, was invested and built by Kehong Group from southwest China's Sichuan Province and currently has three chili pepper cooperative planting and training spots across Uganda.

The park plans to expand the chili plantation area to 2,000 acres by 2026 to further increase exports to China, according to Luo Heng, chairman of the industrial park.