Tata Coffee
Tata brews hot in Africa with coffee plant, Tetley tea
Hindustan Times — April 19, 2006

The Tatas are setting up a processing plant for instant coffee in Uganda. Tata Coffee Uganda, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Coffee and Tata Africa, will set up the plant at a cost of $12 million, said Raman Dhawan, MD, Tata Africa Holdings while talking to journalists in Johannesburg. Tatas will invest $4 million in the project while the rest will come in as debt. The Tatas are also trying to rope in a financial investor to buy into the project, in which case the equity would go up to $6 million.

The plant will buy 9,000 tonnes of coffee seeds to produce 3,600 tonnes of instant coffee every year. Tata Coffee will sell the instant coffee in markets like Eastern Europe, China, Scandinavian countries and South Africa. Uganda doesn't have a processing plant for coffee and the local government was keen to have the project. Tatas walked in after other international firms shied away from the project. The plant is likely to commence production by third half of 2007.