The Equatorial Coffee Mission

At Equatorial Coffee, we take great pride in selecting the finest beans from around the world, but our true passion is Organic Fair Trade Ugandan Coffee. Since we are new to the U.S. market, our Ugandan coffee is still pending government certification, but we assure you that our Ugandan Coffee Beans are grown organically and traded fairly.

Mountains of Uganda

Equatorial Coffee's Mission in Uganda

Improve Organic coffee bean farming methods.
Help small scale coffee farmers increase their yield by introducing Robusta washing to rural areas and teaching better organic coffee farming method.
Aims to create a unique relationship between the local coffee farmers and coffee drinkers in North America. This will help increase farmers' farm-gate prices.

Coffee Nursery in Uganda

About The Equatorial Coffee Company

Equatorial Coffee is a division of Pearl Commodities, Inc. We started out as a local commodities company in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, servicing the East African region. Now based in Boston, Massachusetts, we entered the U.S. market in 2005, with the intention of promoting fair trade coffee between the two continents of North America and Africa.

Market in Uganda

About Equatorial Coffee's Founders

Benjamin Kulubya - Co-Founder of Pearl Commodities Inc.

Benjamin has a long career as an entrepreneur and a marketing executive. Benjamin is also a coffee connoisseur and enjoys the Mchanganyiko blend. With his vast experience in coffee testing, he helped formulate the recipe which finally became this blend of 80/20 Ugandan coffee and world coffees.

Benjamin's Commitment to Organic Coffee

Benjamin has been instrumental in going down to the villages in Uganda to organize coffee farmers into coops in order to garner better prices for their coffee. He has helped introduce innovative and updated farming practices as well as convince farmers to keep their crops organic, which has helped Ugandan farmers get better quality coffee that meets world standards and garners better prices.

Rashid Mbabali - Co-Founder of Pearl Commodities Inc.

Rashid has an intuitive understanding of the commodities market, whose family has been dealing in coffee for the last 30 years. Prior to that, Rashid's great grandfather was a coffee farmer. The family coffee farming business was later passed down to Rashid's grandfather. who educated all his 14 children using money from his harvest. At age 18, Rashid's father decided he was going to become a coffee broker and began buying coffee from all the different regions of Uganda.

Rashid's Commitment to Fair Trade Coffee

One reason Rashid is so passionate about the fair trade coffee mission is to keep his great grandfather's legacy alive. Many coffee farmers stop coffee farming because the money they were getting for the crop was simply not enough to sustain their livelihoods. Rashid believes that fair trade coffee is crucial to the survival of all small scale farmers around the world, including his own family members.

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