6 The Status and Future of Charcoal in the Energy …
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charcoal from trees and sustaining its competition with newer charcoal
briquettes from waste, especially among price-sensitive consumers (The
Independent, 2016; see also Pesa, 2017)
6.5 Charcoal in the Final Market
Charcoal is so widely recognized that advanced branding and advertising hardly exist. Indeed, because it is brittle but indestructible, limited
sophistication exists in its packaging to attract buyers or provide warnings about its side effects. Some traders measure and value charcoal by
the sack, 120–300 centimetres high (Fig. 6.3a), with price variations
depending on its perceived quality, and through using old repurposed
plastic (Fig. 6.3d) and metallic equipment (see also Tabuti, Dhillion, &
Lye, 2003). The charcoal value chain in Uganda is also characterized by
cross-district trade, where urban traders are not necessarily involved in
upstream production (Nabukalu & Gieré, 2019). With over 56 legally
recognized ethnic groups and 41 languages (Uganda Bureau of Statistics [UBOS], 2006), the deep-seated linguistic diversity of Uganda’s
native population (Mpuga, 2003; Nakayiza, 2016; Mugerwa, 2016)
warrants a high level of involvement by middlemen that are predisposed
to communicate in common languages of the urban centres as well as
dominant languages in the rural areas where upstream procurement is
done. When middlemen choose to trade charcoal within the existing
market infrastructure (Fig. 6.3b–d), they contribute to the microeconomic development where they operate through paying occupancy fees.
However, such opportunities can either be diminished by direct deliveries
to customers that order through mobile phones for home deliveries, or
are nonexistent in rural regions, such as Bulamogi (Fig. 6.1), because
charcoal producers sell at the kiln and there is more dependence on
firewood, the cheaper and more ubiquitous fuel competitor.
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charcoal from trees and sustaining its competition with newer charcoal
briquettes from waste, especially among price-sensitive consumers (The
Independent, 2016; see also Pesa, 2017)
6.5 Charcoal in the Final Market
Charcoal is so widely recognized that advanced branding and advertising hardly exist. Indeed, because it is brittle but indestructible, limited
sophistication exists in its packaging to attract buyers or provide warnings about its side effects. Some traders measure and value charcoal by
the sack, 120–300 centimetres high (Fig. 6.3a), with price variations
depending on its perceived quality, and through using old repurposed
plastic (Fig. 6.3d) and metallic equipment (see also Tabuti, Dhillion, &
Lye, 2003). The charcoal value chain in Uganda is also characterized by
cross-district trade, where urban traders are not necessarily involved in
upstream production (Nabukalu & Gieré, 2019). With over 56 legally
recognized ethnic groups and 41 languages (Uganda Bureau of Statistics [UBOS], 2006), the deep-seated linguistic diversity of Uganda’s
native population (Mpuga, 2003; Nakayiza, 2016; Mugerwa, 2016)
warrants a high level of involvement by middlemen that are predisposed
to communicate in common languages of the urban centres as well as
dominant languages in the rural areas where upstream procurement is
done. When middlemen choose to trade charcoal within the existing
market infrastructure (Fig. 6.3b–d), they contribute to the microeconomic development where they operate through paying occupancy fees.
However, such opportunities can either be diminished by direct deliveries
to customers that order through mobile phones for home deliveries, or
are nonexistent in rural regions, such as Bulamogi (Fig. 6.1), because
charcoal producers sell at the kiln and there is more dependence on
firewood, the cheaper and more ubiquitous fuel competitor.