Uganda, one of Africa’s major coffee exporters, is set to have its first instant coffee processing plant to be set up by an Indian coffee company, local media reported on Wednesday.
According to the agreement signed between the government and TATA Coffee (Uganda) Ltd on Tuesday,the construction of the plant in Jinja, 80 km east of Kampala, would start in two months and complete in early 2009.
“For over 100 years we have never had a chance to process coffee. For the first time Uganda will export instant coffee. This is an important development,� said Uganda’s Finance Minister Ezra Suruma, who signed the agreement on behalf of the government.
The agreement followed President Yoweri Museveni’s invitation of TATA to invest in Uganda, a major organic coffee producer in the region, after the world’s leading processor Nescafe declined to come.
TATA Coffee, a subsidiary of India’s steel manufacturing giant TATA Group, would inject 20 million U.S. dollars in the deal while the Ugandan government provides 50 acres (20 hectares) of land, tax incentives among other things.
Shalendra Kundra, the director of TATA Coffee (Uganda), said the plant, estimated to employ about 150 people, is planned to have an installed capacity of 3,600 tons of instant coffee per year. Kundra said the company would be buying up to 10,000 tons of raw coffee beans, representing 5 percent of the country’s total annual output.
The government of Libya also planned to set up a soluble coffee plant in Namanve Industrial Park at about 25 million dollars while Mt. Elgon Coffee is planning to put up a roasting plant in Tororo for export to its sister company in Denmark.
The three firms when operational will process 20 percent of the coffee produced, create about 1,200 jobs and bring in about 2 billion dollars.
Coffee exportation has fetched for Uganda 172.9 million dollars in 2005 from 124.2 million dollars in 2004 despite a reduction in export volume, according to an official. Coffee had remained Uganda’s major foreign exchange earner accounting for 21 percent of the export earnings.
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Reported from Uganda Travel Safari News.
Posted by beanybabe at 3:52 AM PST
