Matching Grants for the Coffee and Cocoa Value Chain in Uganda

The EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (EU-EAC MARKUP) financed under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) has earmarked funds up to a tune of EUR 3.48 million through a matching grant scheme to support smallholder coffee and cocoa farmers in Uganda.

The project focus is to improve access to the European market and, specifically, the matching grant scheme aims to positively impact small holders, create jobs and ensure that the value chains are managed properly.

After a successful call for proposals and final evaluation of the proposals, six companies have been successfully selected to benefit from the grant. Of these six companies, four are from the coffee sub sector and two are from the cocoa sub sector. The funds will be divided among the six companies, as 1 million will go to the cocoa sector and the remaining 2.38 to the coffee sector.

The grants are intended to improve production and productivity, reduce harvest and post-harvest losses, and increase market access in the coffee and cocoa value chains. The recipients of the grants are expected to sign the grant contracts and begin implementation at the start of October 2020.

Successful utilisation of the grant funds will enable the beneficiaries to add value to their products so they can attain high premium returns on their produce and increase the price incentive through diversification into higher value export markets especially to the EU and Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries.