President Museveni hosted a high-level delegation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at State House, Entebbe, in talks aimed at strengthening bilateral economic cooperation and opening up new commercial opportunities between the two countries.
The Saudi delegation, led by Mr. Ali O. Alswayeh, thanked the President for the audience and reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s interest in expanding investment in Uganda. The team identified agriculture, with particular emphasis on coffee value addition, as a key area of interest.
President Museveni welcomed the delegation and said Uganda and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed cordial relations over the years but have not fully tapped the available economic opportunities.
“We have been working together for a long time, but we have not fully engaged to maximise our investment opportunities,” the President said.
The two sides discussed the Value at Source Coffee Project (VASP), an agro-industrial initiative spearheaded by Nonda Coffee, which seeks to shift Uganda from exporting raw coffee beans to exporting branded, higher-value finished products.
Central to the plan is the proposed Luwero Coffee Park, an integrated industrial complex in Luwero District. The facility is projected to process up to 42,000 metric tonnes of coffee annually, with a targeted annual revenue of USD 850 million.
The park is expected to cover the full coffee value chain, including cleaning, grading, roasting, grinding, soluble and specialty coffee production, packaging, branding and export of finished products.
The project is projected to create about 1,500 direct jobs and an estimated 3,000 indirect jobs in logistics, retail and auxiliary services. It is also expected to integrate more than 100,000 coffee-farming households into a structured supply chain.
Saudi Arabia was cited as a strategic entry point into the wider Middle East market, one of the fastest-growing coffee consumption regions globally. The expansion is expected to boost demand for Ugandan coffee, strengthen bilateral trade, and create stable downstream markets for local farmers.
The meeting reaffirmed both sides’ interest in investment-led growth, private sector development and value addition as key drivers of economic transformation.
President Museveni reiterated that value addition remains central to Uganda’s development agenda, noting that exporting finished goods rather than raw materials is key to increasing export earnings, creating jobs and driving industrial growth.
