T H E C O F F E E Y E A R B O O K
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UgandaCoffee Federation
2 0 M I L L I O N B A G S B Y 2 0 2 0
The effort to haveUgandamove to the
middle incomecountry by 2040, is a
commendable one. To start the journey
to attaining that status, theGovernment
of Ugandaprioritized coffee as oneof its
strategic commoditieswith a specific vision
2020 toproduce 20million60kg-bags,
whichwill goa longway in attaining the
middle income status.
I
appreciate the fact
Government is already
providing funding to
purchaseanddistribute
coffee seedlings to farmers.
However, I would like to
appeal toGovernment and its
lineministries andagencies
connectedwith thecoffee
subsector to improveon the
way of approachingcoffee
development.Wewould
like topropose that coffee
development this time round
shouldbe approached in a
holisticmanner if weare to
realize the 20million 60kg-
bags.We are calling upon all
stakeholders andgovernment
to start doing things differently
different from theway they
havealways been.
Our proposal toGovernment
moving forward includes
sortingout the legal and
regulatory anddevelopment
dimensions. This, however,
calls for;
(i) The urgent need to enact
theNational Coffee Law,
whichwill provide for how
the sector will begoverned
andmanaged to achieve
enhancedcompetiveness
and shouldprovide for
establishment of theNational
Coffee Fund.
Toboost Uganda coffee
production andexports to a
tune of 20millionbags, there
is urgent need toestablish
aNational Coffee Fund. The
Ugandacoffee sector which
plays a very important macro-
economic role inbalance
of payment should have a
preferential productive fund
that is coffee specificwithnot
more than 7% interest rate.
Thegrant support provided
byGovernment needs tobe
accompaniedwithmoney
Theurgentcall
fora
National
CoffeeFund
for
Uganda
Thewriter, JosephNkandu at hisCoffee Farm
