MILAN – For the first time, the East Africa Community (EAC) Coffee Business Forum is bringing together public and private stakeholders to identify concrete solutions to boost trade and investment opportunities for coffee exporters in East African countries.
The EAC Coffee Business Forum coincides with the African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition in Mombasa, Kenya, running from 11-14 February 2019.
Organised jointly with the African Fine Coffee Conference & Exhibition, the EAC Coffee Business Forum is financed by the European Union through the MARKUP programme.
It will feature a week of interactive discussions, workshops and networking events. It is a forum for regional and international businesses, service providers and policy makers in the coffee sector to exchange and learn from each other as well as find markets and international sales opportunities.
During the Forum, a special coffee cupping session and a first of its kind online mini-auction will offer the participants the opportunity to taste and buy coffee from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania and international buyers to bid and purchase through the online facility.
The Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) https://www.eacmarkup.org/ – is an initiative of the EAC Secretariat, funded by the EU and Germany Federal Government (BMZ). It is implemented by various agencies, including the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), UNIDO, Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and other partners.
MARKUP aims to increase exports of selected value chains, promote regional integration and access to the European market by addressing specific challenges that SMEs, Trade and Investment Support Institutions (TISIs) and policy-makers face.
