On October 1, 2016, the 77 member states of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) and doPreUganda Mediaf coffee associations from around the globe celebrated the 2nd annual International Coffee Day.
Since 2010, the Uganda coffee industry has celebrated Coffee Day to coincide with the new coffee year.
Each year the theme for the day centres on topical issues related to the industry ranging from production, youth and women participation and climate change among others.
International Coffee Day is a global celebration of coffee’s journey from the coffee farm to your local coffee shop. It is an opportune time to honour the men and women who grow and harvest coffee.
This year’s theme “Underscoring Stakeholders’ Roles in Achieving Uganda Coffee Vision 2020” was a call to the stakeholders in the coffee industry to embrace their roles in achieving the government’s Coffee Vision 2020.
In addition to increasing production and exportation of Ugandan coffee, the public and private sectors will be promoting increase in domestic consumption.
The number of bags of coffee consumed locally has been growing over the years. An estimated 236,400 bags of coffee were consumed in the FY 2015/16 which is up from 229,200 bags in FY 2014/15 (or 0.36kg per capita consumption per year).
The target is to increase average per capita consumption per year to 0.5kg in the next five years.
UCDA acknowledges and commends the private sector for promoting domestic consumption of Ugandan soluble coffee, roasted beans and ground coffee by making these available at almost every shopping mall and on most supermarket shelves.
Coffee consumption is spreading across the country. The number of cafes has also grown over the years from 46 in FY 2013/14 to 94 in FY 2015/16. These cafés have created over 586 barista job opportunities for the youth.
In the last five years, value added coffee imports have risen by 519%. This clearly shows that there is a demand for domestic coffee consumption and as such anyone interested in promoting domestic consumption is assured of a market.
UCDA will endeavour to provide an enabling environment for domestic consumption and calls on the coffee producers to do their part to ensure they meet the demand for increased consumption.
Highlights of the year 2015/2016 include:
- Value addition is a key element for success in the coffee industry. In line with this a total of 1,067 post-harvest industry players were registered in the financial year 2015/16 comprising 49 exporters, 21 export grading plants, 454 processing factories, 22 washing stations, 506 buying stores and 16 roasters. In addition, two roasters were supported to develop exportable brands.Three key events that helped to promote domestic consumption of Ugandan coffee were: a one week coffee on the road event, UCDA barista training and graduation and the participation of the Uganda National Barista Champion Dennis Agaba in the Africa and World Championships. MrAgaba came 3rd in the Africa championships and 55th in the World Championships.
- Over the last three years, a total of 487 mother gardens have been established with over 362 mother bushes.
- In FY 2015/16 the number of seedlings planted increased almost seven-fold to 93 million from 12.7 million in FY 2011/12.
- UCDA supported NaCORI to construct a modern biotechnology and tissue culture laboratory at Kituza with the capacity to produce at least 1.2 million tissue culture plants per annum. NaCORI has bred and released 7 CWD resistant lines. However, production of enough of these planting materials to satisfy farmers’ demand and needs is currently the main challenge facing the sub-sector. This is mainly due to the slow process of using the conventional methods of rooted cuttings, coupled with limited capacity by public and private sectors.
- UCDA contracted a private company, Farm Input Care Centre (FICA) to generate 500,000 tissue culture seedlings. So far a total of over 155,000 tissue culture seedlings are in the process of being weaned and hardened.
Uganda celebrated the International Coffee Day with a Uganda Coffee Cup Football Tournament at Kyambogo University last weekend on October 1st and 2nd with 15 teams playing.
The main celebrations were held at St. Lawrence – Horizon Campus – on October 6th. The high profile event was graced by the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dr RuhakanaRugunda who was be the Guest of Honour.
Also in attendance were the Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Hon. Vincent Sempijja, the UCDA Board Chairman Mr Perez Bukumunhe, the Chairman of Uganda Coffee Federation Mr Fred Luzinda, UCDA board members, management and staff and other key stakeholders in the coffee industry.
