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UgandaCoffee Federation
that in real termswill produce
moremoney.
TheNational Coffee Fund
will be createdby first and
foremost the subsector’s
own fees leviedon coffee
exports calledCess. Today,
theCess is also used as a
one-off fund that does not
lead to sustainable funding
for the sector. Turning it into
aproductive fund rather than
only consumptive funding, as
it is now, will start to unleash
the hugeeconomicpotential
that there is in the coffee
subsector. Thepurpose of
this productive funding is to
enableall actors along the
coffee valuechain to access
appropriate funding togrow
the entire subsector.
Experience from other
countries such asBrazil
andColombiahas shown
that aNational CoffeeFund
that is carefully planned,
managedand appropriated
annually for all coffee related
businesses along theentire
coffee value chainwith
different rates of interest not
exceeding 7% canpropel
the industry andcountry’s
economy togreater heights.
Annually the fundwould
makeallocation toproduction
(for inputs), workingcapital
for farmer organizations,
workingcapital for roasters,
Coffee acquisition financing,
coffee storage infrastructure,
andany other for capital
investments (e.g. irrigation
infrastructure) that canbe
made. By doing so, wewill
have startedon theholistic
approach to stimulatingcoffee
subsector growth not only
at farm level but alsoacross
the entire valuechain.What
ismore interestingabout this
fund is that its portfoliogrows
andgrows to sustainably fund
the sector. It is not aone off
funding.
Regarding themodalities
for administering the fund,
this canbeworked out first
within theNational Coffee
Law yet tobe enacted. It is
the subsector actors’ greatest
appeal that this request
is urgently addressedby
Government or elseUganda
will continue to stagnate and
decline incoffeeproduction
and remain to talk about
the hugepotential that the
coffee subsector has. Once
this proposal is put inplace,
the journey to increasing
Uganda’s coffeeproduction
will have started.
