Uganda: Quest Made for a Comprehensive National Coffee Policy

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The Monitor (Kampala)

14 August 2008
Posted to the web 14 August 2008

Dorothy Nakaweesi

Absence of a comprehensive national coffee policy is one of the major ills eating away the industry and a delay in action, millions of Ugandans and the entire economy is destined to ruins.

In spite of Uganda's strategic position of being Africa's second biggest coffee producer after Ethiopia and has become a major player in robusta coffee production after political unrest in former top grower Ivory Coast slashed output. Earnings from coffee, thou still reign the export sector and a source of employment for over 5million Ugandans.

Current annual coffee exports according to UCDA records show that Uganda slightly produced about 3 million bags and this earned the country over $256 million.

The Executive Director Uganda Coffee Development Authority a government advocacy body that regulates coffee trading in the country, Mr Henry Ngabirano in an interview with Daily Monitor said; "There is a policy which governs UCDA but it only caters for marketing, processing, export, and value addition and when it comes to extension services this is under NAADs. Production, which is most important level along the value chain, is left out".

Ngabirano added that with a comprehensive policy in place, it would be a guideline for the development of the industry and it put the country in a position to fight and even be able to prepare for the changes in the climate.

Mr Joseph Nkandu the executive director National Union of Coffee Associations and Farmers Enterprises (Nucafe) a framework designed to support coffee farmers to organize themselves to assume as many roles as possible in the value chain in order to have a bigger market value share, in separate interview with Daily Monitor said; "If the policy should address issues like gestation period for the coffee trees as when they are supposed to be productive, which is one of the major problems affecting production".

Research in the variety of species, which are both disease and drought resistant, should also be addressed in the policy to enable further plan.

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Mr Nkandu added that currently there is no major local coffee consumption campaign in the country yet if this was mentioned in the policy it creates more jobs and more money would go into the pockets of the farmers.

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