US firm eyes Ugandan coffee
Top executives of Starbucks Coffee Company, the world's leading coffee processing firm, have arrived in the country to find ways of involving their company in the Ugandan coffee sector.
A press statement from the Media Centre in Kampala on Monday said Mr Alain Poncelet, Starbucks' Vice President for Coffee, and Mr Peter Torrebiarte, General Manager for Farmer Support Center in Costa Rica, will discuss strategies to enhance the quality of Ugandan coffee exports with senior line ministers.
They will also hold discussions with officials from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority and African Trade and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
Starbucks is the largest purveyor of specialty coffee in the world with 13,000 coffee shops in 40 countries.
The statement said the company paid an average of $3.12 per kilogramme for premium coffee beans, 36 per cent more than the industry average commodity market price for coffee.
"In February, the coffee company announced it planned to double its imports of coffee from East Africa over the next two years and would build a farmer support center in East Africa, staffed by a team of experts in soil management and field-crop production to help farmers increase their capacity to produced highly valued specialty coffee," the statement said.
It is also planning to provide affordable credit to farmers.
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