STiR coffee and tea magazine

54 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2018 (August / September) Emmanuel Niyibigira, managing director UCDA, which is responsible for research, promotion of production, controlling coffee quality and improving the marketing of coffee. The collapse of former primary coffee cooperatives after the liberalization of the coffee sector led farmers to organize into business units. These units help them to access quality planting material and reasonably priced farm-in- puts and train farmers in good production practices. Robusta comprises of 80% of the nation's crop. It is grown in low altitude districts in the Eastern, Central, Western and South Western regions with 20% cultivated in high altitude districts in Mount Elgon, Mount Ruwenzori and Mount Muhabura. According to Tony Mugoya, who heads the UCFA secretariat that coor- dinates the regional unions formed by grassroots coffee factories with direct coffee producer membership, the agency is "supporting the adoption of best practices in farmers' operations, facilitating access to business and managerial skills, promoting good leadership among coffee farmers' organizations and also creating partnerships with other stakeholders in the industry." UCFA is structured to train farmers, encourage the sharing of skills among themselves and enables farmers to prioritize their training needs. "Requests for training on specific areas where they require information for better coffee production and processing are welcome," he says. Adding value Separately, NUCAFE, an alliance of 125 coffee farmers associations with more than 100,000 coffee farming families, is also working with farmers to add value to their coffee before they sale. "NUCAFE is working with coffee farmers to expand their role in the entire coffee industry chain and thus enable them earn more from their crop which they can re-invest in the coffee farm enterprise," said executive Nucafe executive Joseph Nkandu. Mobilization of farmers into organizations to enhance economies of scale has also opened opportunities for some of the growers to have a glimpse of the larger global market with some of their coffee, both through UCFA and Nucafe, already having been bought by international buyers because of their good quality. Uganda's development partners and international agencies are also sup- porting the farmers not only to access the international market that pay well but also enable them create partnerships with more buyers especially in mar- kets outside the European Union such as USA, China, and Middle East and North Africa. "Uganda is pursuing several coffee marketing initiatives including targeting new markets where we are trying to create structured demand for our coffee," said Niyibigira. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) expo held in Seattle, Wash., was one of the biggest marketing initiatives meant to link Uganda coffee produc- ers, US coffee roasters/buyers and suppliers of equipment used in the pro- cessing of coffee in Uganda. World Market "This was a very useful event in helping restart the Uganda coffee as it starts to enter into world market," said Ambassador Malac, who led a team of 20 producers, exporters and UCDA representatives to the Seattle Expo. "We saw an opportunity to take the team to the Specialty Coffee Expo to help them get opportunity to see what some of the other countries are doing in marketing their coffee brand and also how to up their game to be competi- tive in the global market," she said. "A number of contacts and connections made would hopefully lead to deal or further discussions into ways of working together or how they can start improving their production again," said Malac. By Shem Oirere Rwanda Coffee Update Showcasing Rwanda's coffee at the World of Cof- fee exhibition in Amsterdam, Netherlands, was the culmination of government and private sector ef- forts to promote exports from this landlocked but fast-growing East African economy. Part of the story Rwanda told participants at the Specialty Coffee Association event is how fa- vorable the investment climate is for those keen on investing in coffee industry value chains. Coffee production has climbed to 420,000 60-kilo bags a year from 42,000 hectares under the crop. Rwanda, with an impressive 6% average eco- nomic growth, is ranked the fourth least corrupt country by Transparency International. Corruption is a significant problem for international coffee in- vestors eyeing the East African coffee market. According to the United States Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID), Rwanda is also the easiest location to start a business. It takes only six hours to register a company in Rwanda through the Rwanda Development Board. USAID has assisted Rwanda's 400,000 farm- ers "increase coffee yields through a combination of research, capacity building, outreach, and poli- cy engagement." "The end goal is to boost the sustainability of coffee production in the region and preserve Rwanda's legacy of world-class coffee among roasters, retailers, and consumers around the globe," USAID writes in a previous report. A key program finances construction of coffee washing stations (CWS). The National Agriculture Export Development Board says there are now 301 coffee washing stations, up from two in 2000. "Coffee washing substantially reduces the risk of defects in coffee" according to the International Growth Centre (IGC). When Rwanda exports fully washed coffee (FWC), the export revenue is spread out along the value chain with benefits accrued to the farmer, laborers, the CWS owner, and the financier. "This has boosted volumes of fully-washed coffee to different specialty coffee markets. As a result, coffee revenues shot from $22.4 million in 2000 to $64 million in 2017," NAEB said. Rwanda exports a significant share of its coffee to the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Pakistan. Export volumes are still low. "Only 30-40% of the exported coffee is washed," the ICG survey memo reads in part. Researchers recommend Rwanda double its washed coffee output. Holding constant at today's volumes, Rwanda could ex- pect a 10-20% increase in coffee export revenues (3-6% increase in total export revenues).

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