A farmer picks coffee in Kyotera District. Research shows that there is a lot of misinformation about coffee locally. PHOTO/MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
Ihave always been surprised by the answers that I get when I ask most of my fellow coffee farmers where the coffee that they grow goes when it leaves their farms.
In Uganda we are not great drinkers of coffee and one of the most difficult tasks is to convince an ordinary Ugandan coffee farmer that actually the coffee that we produce is in very high demand in Europe and other continents.
The truth is that most people are biased against coffee and they normally drink tea.
There is actually a lot of misinformation about coffee. Many claim it triggers high blood pressure. Some say it reduces libido in women, while others say it reduces sleep.
The apparent ignorance about what happens to the crop and where it goes could be the reason it is difficult to convince the farmers to observe meticulous hygiene when handling the crop during its harvest, drying, storage, and transportation. Coffee is actually human food although a few other products are made out of it.
For example, a quick Google search indicates that coffee is such a big thing in Belgium where per capita annual coffee consumption ranges at almost seven kilogrammes. The country is said to be full of coffee lounges that are bursting with customers all the time.
According to the International Coffee Organisation Report 2016, Finland leads the world in coffee consumption at 12 kilogrammes per capita annually and, in that country, all employers must by law grant two coffee 10-minute breaks to their employees every day to drink the beverage. In Norway the annual per capita coffee consumption is 9.9 kilogrammes and people drink coffee not only as a good beverage but to socialise. Other great coffee drinking countries include Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxemburg, and Canada. China with its huge population is emerging as another coffee drinker alongside Japan.
None of the mentioned rich Western coffee consumers grow coffee. The crop originated in sub-Saharan Africa and some islands in the Indian Ocean. It is our crop and we should even be the ones to set the crop’s prices as producers. Coffee is easily the most popular non-alcoholic beverage all over the world because of its aroma and caffeine content. Coffee is the most traded commodity in the world after oil. Uganda is one of the 10 biggest coffee producers on the globe.
