Masaka District boss sues UCDA over closed coffee factories

The Masaka District chairperson Mr Jude Mbabali has filed an application in the High Court at Masaka against Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), asking that the authority opens up over 160 coffee- processing factories in greater Masaka sub region.
Through Mbabali Jude and Company Advocates, Mr Mbabali who doubles as the chairman of chairmen in greater Masaka districts wants the decision of the UCDA to close the factories, quashed.
Farmers in the eight districts of Greater Masaka Sub region including Bukomansimbi which is one of the leading coffee producers in the country, Kalungu, Sembabule, Lwengo, Rakai, Masaka, and Lyantonde have been crying foul following the closure of coffee processing factories in the districts about a month ago.
“Our people have waited for this season’s harvest after braving the dry spell which hit the region and endangered their yields,” Mr Mbabali said.
A team of coffee farmers from Bukomansimbi District on Sunday visited Daily Monitor offices complaining that their livelihood is threatened and many have failed to take their children back to school due to closure of the factories.
Mwalimu Abdallah Kato, the deputy Pokino (Kabaka’s deputy chief in Buddu County), who headed the team said some farmers in the area depend on coffee-growing as their source of income and are now sleeping on empty stomachs since they cannot get money to buy food.
“The closure of the factories has left many people jobless and we really don’t know when they will be reopened,” he said.
Mr Robert Ssentamu, the southern regional coordinator at UCDA confirmed the development, stressing that no factory is currently permitted to operate.
He said action was taken after UCDA officials toured the district and discovered that all coffee processing factories were processing immature coffee, which compromises the quality.
“Some factories had earlier been closed, but the proprietors broke the seals put on the doors of their premises and resumed operations,” he said.
All the closed factories, Ssentamu says, were found with green coffee beans mixed with red cherries, were drying coffee on the bare ground and had moldy coffee in the stores, while others lacked standard husk collection chambers thus allowing dust to spill over, polluting the processed cherries.
“We cannot let this practice to continue going on because it doesn’t only affect farmers in Greater Masaka, but also the entire country,” he said.
Ssentamu explained that with the ending rainy season, farmers could not wait for their coffee to dry properly which prompted bigger coffee buyers in Kampala to reject it.
“Our farmers are only considering competition in tonnage forgetting that quality matters more,” he explained.
He said the affected factories will only resume normal operations after a team of UCDA quality controllers have carried out an assessment to prove that farmers no longer sell coffee which
has not dried up.
He said, Uganda is risking a ban of its coffee on the international market if the quality regulations are not strictly implemented. Ssentamu also said that the decision to close the factories would in the end benefit the farmers who lose a lot of profits because of selling immature coffee.
“They will later appreciate that we have helped them because at the moment when one sells coffee which is of low quality, there is a considerable weight that is deducted from the kilogrammes he or she has,” Ssentamu said before advising them to get alternative sources of income in addition to coffee.

Past incidents
UCDA has in the last six years been closing down coffee factories that don’t meet standards. Last year, all coffee factories in Kayunga District were shut down for a week, for processing immature coffee.
In 2013, over 50 factories were affected in Luweero, Mubende, Kiboga, Mpigi ,Mityana and Gomba districts.
According to Coffee Regulations (1994), coffee farmers and dealers are supposed to harvest only red ripe cherries, drying the harvested coffee on raised chambers or tarpaulins and factories must have cemented floors.