MILAN, Italy – Launched in 2022, Mwanyi – which means coffee in the local Ugandan language – is a project launched in 2022 by Caffè Borbone with the support of OFI (Olam Food Ingredients), a world leader in the field of natural foods and beverage ingredients and solutions and one of the world’s leading suppliers of green coffee.
The aim of the project, which will involve 1,000 women and young people over a five-year period, is to increase the number of young people and women involved in sustainable coffee production in Uganda by 2027, with a consequent increase in female and youth employment.
The initiative consists of specific training activities aimed at the population between 23 and 59 years old, designed to offer communities in the Ibanda and Bushenyi districts, in south-west Uganda, the opportunity for fair and transparent access to training and to fight the precariousness and rural exodus that heavily afflict these areas.
Uganda is the birthplace of Robusta coffee, as well as being the first country in Africa for the production of Robusta and the second in Africa for the production of coffee in general. Coffee production contributes 2% of Uganda’s GDP, with 353,000 hectares of arable land.
Coffee represents 14% of total exports in terms of revenue. Coffee production is the main source of livelihood for approximately 1/3 of the population, equal to 1.7 million families (of 7 people on average): a female-driven supply chain given that 40% of the people employed in this sector are women.
Carlo Pesenti, CEO of Italmobiliare Investment Holding, and Marco Schiavon, CEO of Caffè Borbone, went to Uganda to meet the women and young people taking part in Mwanyi, a five-year project launched with OFI to develop skills and promote entrepreneurial initiatives of female and young farmers who work in the coffee production chain in Uganda.
The mission in Uganda was also an opportunity to meet the Italian Ambassador to Kampala, Mauro Massoni, and the Minister of Agriculture, Frank Tumwebaze.
