Uganda coffee; the green gold for high quality crop

From February 6 to February 10, I was able to attend the African fine Coffees Association Convention in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the recommendation of the Uganda Coffee Development Association (UCDA).

The association comprises coffee cooperative societies, coffee export companies and coffee equipment financiers and key stakeholders.

The highlight for me was that while Ugandans may view coffee as the high income green cherry that turns into a red berry, which when harvested, can be sold at a competitive rate perhaps akin to gold; few may appreciate that on the international market, it is not an ordinary berry but a unique product best interpreted in academic terms.

The African fines coffee convention included exhibitions of coffee samples, cupping competitions and presentations of research papers. The presentations revealed the science and art of the production of the high quality coffee bean on the world market. Starting from the garden where the coffee is grown, specialty coffee can be attained by maximum attention and care to the coffee garden, including emphasis on organic farming as opposed to use of pesticides.

Environment coffee friendly bean is the new craze according to European Union standards that call for use of a coffee mapping tool that gazettes all gardens and farms where coffee is grown so that it can be traced from its source by the exporters.

The satellite mapping tool is able to establish if the coffee garden was formerly an area covered by trees, in which case, the coffee would not be bought. The gardens in such a case would easily be monitored for best farming practices.

The exquisite process of getting a special product that caters for harvest and post- harvest handling, results in a high quality and highly marketable product. The coffee value chain is complex and needs focused, highly professional personnel to co-ordinate the industry if Uganda will keep pace on the world market.

The testing of coffee by coffee cuppers to check the quality of a batch of coffee is academic since the tasters are able to decipher if post handling of coffee was mis-handled. Coffee cuppers are able to detect a particular coffee’s sensory attributes like fragrance, aroma, flavor, acidity, sweetness and mouth-feel.

As new entrants in the coffee trade with intention of assisting our local people to strive for quality, boost production and income, we were glad to receive good news from Mr Simon Kwikiriza, the Household and Community Transformation Officer of Ankole Diocese that sample coffee from our Diocesan coffee gardens scored 81.75 percent following international standard laboratory tests.

According to information from UCDA, the Mbale based Mountain Harvest is the lead Arabic Coffee Cooperative Union with its test score of 87 while the long experienced Sheema based Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union (ACCPU) coffee with its score of 84.7 percent is one of the lead Robusta coffee producers in Uganda.

 In the near future, the Ankole Revival coffee brand is projected to be a common feature on the market but the biggest lesson to learn is that coffee, the green gold being Uganda’s second highest income earner, is not a simple rural crop, it calls for high level attention, planning, monitoring and guidance to farmers if uganda is going to benefit from this lucrative industry that is more akin to an academic than a business enterprise.

It is only now, after 20 years as a student in England, can I fully appreciate why coffee is a hot cake on the world market, because whenever I used to visit Britain in their homes, the mantra was, ‘Can I get you a cup of coffee?’ sheepishly I would say, ‘I prefer tea!’ I wish I knew better then. Perhaps this might not be the time when the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) is disbanded since the high value income earner crop is not a pedestrian industry to be subjected to bureaucratic processes that may be foreign to principles governing the corporate world.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa Bishop Ankole Diocese & Chancellor Bishop Stuart University [email protected]