A personal care products manufacturer in the Philippines says it is launching into the coffee business in Uganda.
Splash Corporation made the announcement at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday. It said its board of directors had approved the establishment of a subsidiary in Uganda. It said this would involve the acquisition of a coffee brand worth 400,000 dollars, although it did not say which local coffee company will be purchased.
Coffee remains Uganda’s largest export commodity despite attempts to raise the profile of alternative goods like fish, vanilla, tea and human resource. The country boasts of being the largest coffee exporter in the Commonwealth, but this status isn’t as rosy as it appears. Declining world coffee prices and the coffee wilt disease have severely hit export figures in the past decade and the sector is struggling to retain its hold on the global market.
Splash Corporation, which bears no relationship to the Splash juice products produced by Britannia Industries, recently purchased a Singapore-based unit to manage its international acquisitions.
The company’s statement says that although it traditionally works with bottling, packing and marketing of cosmetics, beauty and pharmaceutical products, the entry into the Ugandan coffee market is a new and exciting venture.
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority has not responded to requests for more information on the matter.
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