XSML, the fund manager active in Central & East Africa, has invested via its African Rivers Fund (ARF), in Qualicoff, an exporter of Ugandan coffee beans.

ARF financing has been in the form of a long term working capital loan.  

Qualicoff is a coffee trading company based in Kampala, Uganda, which has been operating since 2010 and exports Robusta green beans to Europe and the United Arab Emirates. 

Qualicoff buys coffee from small holders using a network of small local merchants and ensures quality by cleaning, sorting and bagging this green coffee for export. 

The investment will enable Qualicoff to significantly increase export volumes. 

Coffee is grown in various regions in Uganda and is the country’s largest export product, as well as the biggest contributor to employment and foreign currency reserves. 

While the coffee export market is dominated by the larger commodity trading houses, smaller Ugandan exporters struggle to compete as they have limited access to finance.  

Jarl Heijstee, Managing Partner at XSML, said: “Qualicoff is an experienced exporter of high quality green coffee from Uganda to mainly Europe and the UAE. Our financing will help to achieve a step-change in the company’s growth as it can now triple export volumes.” 

“Smaller coffee exporters have only access to short term finance limiting their export volumes and their ability to compete effectively with the larger coffee export houses. With our financing of Qualicoff we hope to break this mould,” he said. 

The African Rivers Fund (ARF) targets growing, well-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Central & East African region covering Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Republic of Congo as well as - over time - Burundi. The fund is named after the two most powerful rivers in Africa, the Congo and Nile Rivers, which embody the potential of the Central & East African region.

Andrew Ssettimba of Qualicoff, said: “With the financing from XSML we are able to increase our volumes significantly and achieve the first step of our goal of operating our own coffee processing facility. Through this long-term financing we are able to purchase coffee from more than one thousand small holders through our network of local coffee merchants.”