By: Jjingo Francis

ITALY

Uganda is set to benefit as one of five coffee-growing countries from a 700 million Euros fund set up by the Italian government for value addition on coffee so as to meet international standards.

The Director General of the Italian Development Cooperation Stefano Gatti made this revelation during a meeting with Prime Minister of Uganda Robinah Nabbanja during her working visit to Italy saying that out of the 25 coffee-growing countries in Africa, priority has been given to the five countries, Uganda inclusive.

“We have identified five initial countries where we want to start these projects and Uganda being one,” he said.

Once implemented, the Italians through UNIDO are expected to set up coffee processing training centers in Uganda to train the Ugandan youth in Coffee value addition.

The Premier asked the Italian government to consider buying and processing raw coffee beans in Uganda instead of doing so in Italy as this will lead to employment along the value addition chain.

“Why doesn’t it lose value when it is coming back to Uganda, when it is packed in other parts of the world? It loses value when it is coming from Uganda and it does not lose value when it is coming from Italy,” wondered Nabbanja before adding;

“Somebody (who) has never seen a plant or a tree of coffee is earning between 30 to 50 dollars. The person who is toiling to plant the coffee, look after the coffee, harvest the coffee, dry the coffee to the standard that young people need is getting two dollars. This is unacceptable. The President of the Republic of Uganda expressed interest in value addition.”

Currently, Uganda is ranked the second-best coffee producer in Africa and third-best in the world with over 40 percent of the coffee produced in Uganda exported to Italy.

Prime Minister Nabbanja has been on a state working visit to Italy among other reasons to attract investors from Italy to start adding value on Uganda’s coffee before its exported to Italy and other European markets.

The Prime Minister is accompanied by the State Minister of Agriculture, Fred Bwino Kyakulaga , the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, Robert Mukiza and a technical expert on coffee from Uganda Coffee Development Authority, Doreen Rweihangwe.

Uganda is targeting to export 20 million bags of coffee by 2030 but only 6.3 million bags are currently exported annually.