Algeria has been invited to join Uganda in establishing a joint venture with the goal of increasing the value of coffee by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The President made the request on August 8, 2023, while speaking with a team from Algeria at the Speke Resort Munyonyo, which was hosting the ongoing G-25 Africa Coffee Summit.
The team was led by the minister of commerce and export promotion of the nation, Tayeb Zitouni. Museveni said that while Africa, including Uganda, had helped Europe economically, the Western nations had not done the same for them.
“You know when I buy from you something, I’m supporting your prosperity and we have been using our pockets for the last 200 years to support Europeans by buying their vehicles, buying their airplanes, and medicines. When we say that okay you support us also by adding value to our coffee and you pay us more, they don’t understand it,” the President said.
“Therefore, what I propose are joint ventures. The country will get more money from coffee through the joint venture than what we are getting now for raw coffee. For raw coffee, we may be getting USD2.5 per kilogram, when we add value together, we may get USD25. Even if Uganda was to get USD25 together with our joint venture and then the external operations take USD10 or 15, it will be a win-win situation and then create more jobs. That is why we want our Northern African friends and those from the Middle East to come and cooperate with us in this USD25 share,” he added.
Tayeb praised President Museveni’s initiative and declared that his nation would be open to participating.
“Businesspeople are coming here in September to look through the possible cooperation. We consume coffee worth USD300 million per year. We progressed on importing milk from Uganda and we shall also see what we can do with coffee value addition,” he assured the President.
At the same conference, President Museveni was thanked by coffee-producing African nations for being a champion of the advancement of the African coffee industry, particularly value-adding, by the secretary general of the Inter-African Coffee Organization (ICAO), Amb Solomon Rutega.
The President was informed by Emmanuel Lyamulemye, Managing Director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), that Ugandan coffees had won gold at international contests due to their exceptional quality, which may generate a healthy market.
Gen. Jeje Odongo, the minister of foreign affairs for Uganda, Frank Tumwebaze, the minister of agriculture, and Sarah Kagingo, vice chair of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), were among the dignitaries present at the meeting.