Italian Coffee Investor Pinetti snubs probe committee

By Francis Lubega

25^th April 2022

A section of legislators have described the controversial coffee agreement signed between the Government of Uganda and Italian Investor Enrica Pinetti as ‘Satanic’ and called on Parliament to recommend for the cancellation of the contract in order to protect coffee farmers in Uganda.

This was made by Richard Lumu, the Mityana South Member of Parliament in a company of other MPs while appearing before the Parliament’s Trade, Tourism and Industries committee which is investigating the controversies surrounding the coffee agreement, where they also petitioned their proposal over the saga.

Lumu says that the agreement not clear and specific on certain clauses of modus operandi and the exact dates of its expiration as we as the modalities of its termination by the government.

This caused shock to the Trade Committee to learn that the agreement whose negotiations started in 2014 didn’t provide for any clause of termination on the side of the Government, contrary to reports by the Ministry of Finance that the agreement is enforceable for ten years up to 2023.

The lead petitioner Abed Bwanika MP Kimaanya-Kabonera Division tasked the Government to explain whose coffee it’s committing to the US$80M Uganda Vinci Coffee Company since the farmers who are the main growers of coffee weren’t consulted before the deal was signed on their behalf.

Bwanika also protested the proposal to commit 3-6% of the best coffee in Uganda to Vinci, describing this as a monopoly that is geared towards frustrating the coffee farmers in Uganda and disadvantage other processors.

During the probe, it was also revealed that the Government has already spent Shs17Bn in clearing the 27acres of land that was gifted to Pinetti in Namanve Industrial Park.

Meanwhile there have been high tensions in the committee after the said owner of UCVV Enrica Pinetti snubbed the committee summons and instead delegated the company secretary Moses Matovu and other legal officers to represent her.

When Matovu was asked why and where about Pinette, he said that Pinetti had been summoned to the State House after President Museveni.

However some of the committee members chaired by Mwine Mpaka who included Joseph Ssewungu, Mbwa Tekamwa, Francis Mweijukye and others rejected the submissions from the delegated persons, insisting that Pinette must appear in person.