ROME (UGNEWSLINE) – Uganda has urged Italian companies to invest in local coffee processing and other industries, arguing that manufacturing goods at home rather than exporting raw materials would create jobs, increase export earnings and deliver greater benefits to farmers.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja made the appeal at the opening of the first Uganda–Italy Business and Investment Forum in Rome, where she challenged Italian investors to move beyond buying Ugandan agricultural produce and establish factories to process it locally.
“We want our people from Italy to take coffee made in Uganda. Not grown in Uganda,” Nabbanja told Ugandan officials and Italian business leaders at the Rome Cavalieri hotel on Tuesday.
She said Uganda’s coffee farmers continued to earn relatively little from selling raw beans, despite the high value of the finished product in international markets.
A kilogramme of processed coffee sells for about €50 in Italy, she said, highlighting the potential gains from roasting, packaging and branding coffee in Uganda.
“That is where I want partnerships, so that we can help that poor Ugandan who makes you have a cup of coffee on the table,” she added.
Italy is Uganda’s biggest coffee buyer, with the country exporting 8.8 million 60kg bags in the year ending April 2026, generating $2.4bn, according to figures cited from a Ministry of Agriculture report.
Gerald Kyalo, the commissioner for coffee at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, said more than 12 million Ugandans depended on coffee for their livelihoods, while Italy accounted for about a quarter of the country’s coffee exports.
Uganda is Africa’s largest producer of robusta coffee, which accounts for 89% of its output, with arabica making up the remainder. Italy has purchased more than two million bags of Ugandan coffee annually over the past five years, Kyalo said.
“You are our main market, and we are your most important supplier of coffee,” he told Italian buyers.
Uganda produced 9.5 million bags in the 2025/26 season and was on course to meet its target of producing 20 million bags annually by 2030, Kyalo said. The government has been distributing more seedlings to farmers as it seeks to expand production.
However, he said Uganda needed to capture more value from its coffee by attracting Italian firms to establish soluble coffee factories and other processing facilities in the country.
Uganda consumes only about 7% of the coffee it produces, leaving most of its output destined for foreign markets.
Kyalo also sought to reassure European buyers about Uganda’s readiness to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulation, which requires companies to demonstrate that imported coffee has not been grown on recently deforested land.
He said Uganda had registered 1.5 million coffee farmers and mapped 1.6 million coffee gardens, with plans to increase the number of mapped gardens to 2.6 million by the end of December.
A traceability system linking farmers, traders and a national data warehouse was being piloted.
“We are ready for EUDR. Don’t lose sleep that you will not have coffee from Uganda,” he said.
The business forum, held under the theme “Unlocking Shared Prosperity”, is part of Uganda’s efforts to attract foreign investment into agriculture, manufacturing, energy, mining, pharmaceuticals and other sectors.
It is organised by Uganda’s embassy in Italy in partnership with Italian business and investment organisations.
Nabbanja told investors that Uganda’s economy was valued at $69bn and growing at about 6% annually.
She said the government wanted Italian businesses to support its ambition to expand the economy through agro-industrialisation, tourism, mineral development and science, technology and innovation.
The government’s Tenfold Growth Strategy aims to increase the economy from $50bn to $500bn by 2040 and raise annual foreign direct investment from $2.9bn in 2022 to $50bn by the same year.
Nabbanja said opportunities existed for Italian companies in agro-processing machinery, cold-chain infrastructure, tourism, mineral processing and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
She also invited Italian pharmaceutical companies to establish production facilities in Uganda to supply markets across Africa, arguing that the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the continent’s dependence on imported medicines.
She said Uganda planned to generate 52,000 megawatts of electricity by 2040, describing reliable power supply as essential for industrialisation.
The prime minister asked the Italian government to consider Uganda a priority country under the Mattei Plan, Italy’s framework for partnerships with African countries. She also called on Italian state-backed institutions, including CDP, SACE and SIMEST, to support companies seeking to invest in Uganda.
Nabbanja pledged that investors’ capital and profits would be protected by law, adding that her office would intervene if businesses encountered obstacles while operating in the country.
Robert Mukiza, director general of the Uganda Investment Authority, sought to strengthen the investment pitch by telling Italian companies they could earn returns of about 14% on investments in Uganda.
He urged Italian businesses to use Uganda as a base for accessing the wider African market through regional and continental trade arrangements, including the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“The most important market in the world, whether you want it or not, is Africa. You better get there now, and serve Africa from Uganda,” Mukiza said.
He said Uganda’s investment authority operated a one-stop centre to simplify business registration, tax identification, environmental certification, building permits, work permits and banking processes.
Investors adding value to Ugandan products could also qualify for incentives, including serviced land in industrial parks, a 10-year tax holiday, tax-free imports of plant and machinery, and deductions for research and training.
He called on Italian financiers to help fund electricity generation and transmission projects and reduce the cost of capital for businesses operating in Uganda.
Hez Kimoomi Alinda, executive director of the Uganda Free Zones and Export Promotion Authority, said trade between the two countries remained limited despite opportunities to expand it.
He said Italian companies largely imported Uganda’s high-grade robusta coffee for blending with beans from Brazil and other producing countries.
Uganda also exported unprocessed cocoa to Italy, creating an opportunity for investors to establish factories producing cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and chocolate.
Alinda identified fresh fruit and vegetables, vanilla, tea, spices, dairy products, aquaculture, packaging, tourism and information technology-enabled services as other potential areas for investment.
He said Uganda needed more testing laboratories to help fresh agricultural produce meet European Union standards, inviting Italian companies to establish such facilities.
He also offered investors a free 1,031-square-metre production facility in Entebbe for businesses targeting Italian and wider European markets.
Energy and minerals were also central to Uganda’s appeal to Italian investors. Humphrey Asiimwe, chief executive of the Uganda Chamber of Energy and Minerals, said the country had identified 58 minerals, 23 of which were commercially viable, including graphite, tin, tungsten and rare earth elements used in the energy transition.
He said Uganda was approaching the start of oil production, with the first barrel of its Pearl Sweet crude expected to enter the international market in the coming months.
He identified opportunities in refining, petrochemicals, fertiliser production and pipeline services.
A presentation by the Uganda National Oil Company showcased the planned 29-square-kilometre Kabalega Industrial Park near Lake Albert, which is being developed around a proposed refinery with a capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil a day.
The project is projected to contribute nearly $5bn annually to gross domestic product and create more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Asiimwe said Uganda wanted minerals to be processed locally rather than exported as ores or concentrates.
He said gold, the country’s biggest export, was refined locally to a purity of 99.98%, while mining investors could also benefit from exemptions on value-added tax for raw materials.
Uganda’s ambassador to Italy, Elizabeth Paula Napeyok, said the two countries wanted to move their relationship beyond diplomatic engagement towards stronger commercial ties.
“We would like to see the relationship graduating from only diplomatic matters to trade and investment,” she said.
Fabrizio Lobasso of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said Italy wanted to promote joint ventures in Uganda rather than rely solely on exports, with cooperation extending to technology, skills development and digitalisation.
He said a delegation from the Italian foreign ministry was expected to visit Uganda in early November.
Giorgio Traietti, a board member of Confindustria Assafrica & Mediterraneo, said Italian companies viewed Uganda as a potential gateway to the East African market. He said the association would follow up with the Uganda Investment Authority, the Uganda Chamber of Energy and Minerals and the Uganda Free Zones and Export Promotion Authority to advance investment opportunities.
The forum reflects Uganda’s broader effort to use its diplomatic missions to secure trade deals, attract foreign capital and promote technology partnerships.
For the government, the central challenge is to turn growing exports of coffee and other commodities into more domestic processing, industrial jobs and higher earnings for producers.
