Uganda's export industry took faces a bleak future after the European Commission banned the largest transporters of Ugandan produce to European market from operating in Europe.

The commission banned Das Air Cargo and Dairo Air Services, the airlines providing transportation of Uganda's produce, from European airspace over safety concerns, leaving local exporters, particularly of perishable produce like fish and flowers, worried.

"It's a blow to Uganda as a country to see that its biggest cargo carrier is banned from flying to Europe. The consequences will be felt not just by exporters but employees of the company," Capt Tony Rubombora of Eagle Air, a rival company, was quoted by Wednesday's Daily Monitor as saying.

Several sources in the local aviation industry called for government intervention to save the situation.

Europe is Uganda's biggest trading partner, and destination of most of Uganda's lucrative non-traditional exports like fish, flowers and vegetables. Ugandan exports to the European Union rose from 128 million U.S. dollars in 2001 to 252 million dollars last year.

Some aviation experts claim that the European hard-line policy on safety among other regulatory restrictions is meant to edge out African competitors.

"European owned companies would have to fill the gap. The alternative is that companies like Das Air are forced to buy new planes from European companies, borrowing from their governments in the process," a source said.

In banning a locally owned company, Uganda is now listed among several post conflict countries and others currently in conflict whose airlines have been barred from European airspace, which includes Afghanistan, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone among others.

Source: Xinhua