From the field in Uganda: CFC Managing Director sees how commodity finance helps coffee farmers and businesses grow
Nabbingo, 28 September 2026 — What does growth look like beyond the numbers? During a field visit to JKCC General Supplies Limited in Uganda, the Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), Amb. Sheikh Mohammed Belal, met with the people behind the country’s growing coffee trade: the entrepreneurs building local businesses and the smallholder farmers whose hard work sustains them.
Accompanied by Mr. Emmanuel Mutahunga, Governor of the CFC for Uganda and Board Member of the Uganda Free Zones and Export Promotions Authority (UFZEPA), and H.E. Ms. Mirjam Blaak Sow, Alternate Governor of the CFC for Uganda and Ambassador of Uganda to BENELUX and EU, the Managing Director visited JKCC to hear first-hand about the company’s journey, its relationships with farmers and the role that access to finance has played in its growth.
Founded in 2017, JKCC has grown from a small coffee trading business into a major Ugandan coffee exporter. But behind this growth is a story of working capital, trust and the relationships that connect farmers to markets.
“In 2017, our first year, our turnover was only USD 130,000. In 2025, it reached USD 79.8 million. How was that possible? CFC bridged our working-capital needs, farmers trusted us with more volumes, and buyers kept giving us contracts,” said Julius Kalulu, Founder and CEO of JKCC, during his conversation with the CFC Managing Director.
His account illustrates a challenge familiar to many agricultural businesses: having access to farmers and buyers is not always enough. Without the working capital to purchase coffee and fulfil orders, even promising enterprises can struggle to grow. CFC trade finance, totalling USD 2 million for JKCC, has helped the company meet this need and expand its operations.
The visit also offered an opportunity to hear directly from farmers and understand the relationships behind the supply chain. Through its work with the Consortium of Central and Western Farmers Association (COCEWEFA), JKCC connects smallholder coffee producers with export markets while supporting training, access to agricultural inputs and more reliable market opportunities.
“Being here and meeting the farmers and the people behind JKCC brings the purpose of our work into focus. Behind every shipment of coffee are farmers, families and businesses working to build better livelihoods. Our role is to help create the finance and opportunities that allow them to grow.” said Amb. Sheikh Mohammed Belal, Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).
For the CFC, these field encounters bring the purpose of commodity finance into focus. Financing is not an end in itself; it is a means of helping local enterprises grow, strengthening their connections with producers and creating opportunities throughout the value chain.
JKCC’s journey also demonstrates how financing can evolve as a business grows. Following its expansion with CFC support, the company became the first investee of the Agricultural Commodity Transformation Fund (ACT Fund), receiving a USD 3 million trade finance facility in June 2026. The investment represents a further step in JKCC’s growth and illustrates how the CFC and the fund it helped establish can support enterprises at different stages of their development.
The visit to JKCC was a reminder that behind every export figure is a network of people: farmers producing the coffee, businesses connecting them to buyers, and workers contributing to a value chain that reaches far beyond Uganda. Supporting these connections is central to the CFC’s mission of making commodity-dependent economies more inclusive and resilient.
