President Museveni meets Saudi Delegation and Uganda Government officials
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I Saudi Arabia has unveiled ambitious plans to invest billions of dollars in Uganda’s coffee value chain, in a move expected to transform the country’s agricultural sector, create thousands of jobs, and boost export earnings through value addition.
This emerged during a high-level meeting at State House, Entebbe, where President Yoweri Museveni hosted a delegation from Saudi Arabia. The delegation highlighted agriculture — particularly coffee value addition — as one of the Kingdom’s top priority investment areas.
President Museveni welcomed the Saudi interest, commending the delegation for recognising Uganda’s vast untapped investment potential. He noted that although Uganda and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed cordial diplomatic relations for decades, the two countries had not fully exploited the available economic opportunities.
Value addition key
“We have been working together for a long time, but we have not fully engaged to maximise our investment opportunities,” President Museveni said, adding that partnerships focused on agro-processing and industrialisation were critical for Uganda’s long-term economic transformation.
Central to the discussions was the Value at Source Coffee Project (VASP), an agro-industrial initiative spearheaded by Nonda Coffee. The project aims to transition Uganda from exporting raw coffee beans to producing and exporting branded, high-value finished coffee products, enabling the country to earn significantly more from its leading cash crop.
Museveni in discussions with the Saudi’s and other government officials
At the heart of VASP is the proposed Luwero Coffee Park, an integrated industrial complex to be established in Luwero District. The facility is projected to process 42,000 metric tons of coffee annually, with targeted revenues of up to $ 850 million per year.
The industrial park will handle the entire coffee value chain, including cleaning, grading, roasting, grinding, soluble and specialty coffee production, packaging, branding, and export of finished products. This full-cycle approach is expected to dramatically increase Uganda’s share of global coffee earnings.
4,5000 new jobs in offing
Beyond export growth, the project is projected to create approximately 1,500 direct jobs and more than 3,000 indirect jobs in logistics, retail, and auxiliary services. It will also integrate over 100,000 coffee-farming households into a structured supply chain, offering farmers reliable markets, better prices, and improved livelihoods.
The Saudi market is viewed as a strategic gateway into the broader Middle East — one of the world’s fastest-growing coffee consumption regions. Increased market access is expected to boost demand for premium Ugandan coffee, deepen bilateral trade ties, and establish sustainable downstream markets for farmers.
The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment from both sides to strengthen cooperation in agro-processing, industrial development, and market expansion. Analysts say the prospective Saudi investments could mark a turning point for Uganda’s coffee industry, shifting it from a raw commodity exporter to a competitive global supplier of high-quality finished coffee products.
