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The genesis of Uganda Coffee Development Authority
Coffee House along Jinja Road in Kampala is the head office of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
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The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) came into existence following the passing of the UCDA Bill by the National Resistance Council (NRC) in 1991, and the presidential assent to the UCDA Statute of July 12, 1991 amended in 1994).
CDA is one of the agencies
Ucurrently under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF). It is governed by a Board of Directors which oversees the conduct of its business and supervision of UCDA management, which is responsible for the day-to-day operations.
UCDA is charged with the responsibility of monitoring and regulating the coffee industry, as well as advising Government on policy issues.
Vision: A sustainable coffee industry with high stakeholder value for socioeconomic transformation,
Mission: To facilitate the increase in quality coffee production, productivity, and consumption. We live by the slogan ‘empowering livelihoods.
Mandate: To promote and oversee the coffee industry by supporting research, promoting production, controlling the quality and improving the marketing of coffee in order to optimize foreign exchange earnings for the country and payments to the farmers.
Objectives
● To promote good practices in all activities in the coffee value chain;
● To regulate on-farm and off-farm activities in the coffee value chain;
● To promote research along the coffee value chain processes and products related to coffee;
● To promote value addition to coffee including primary processing and establishing soluble coffee plants;
● To promote access to easy and cheap credit for coffee value chain actors; ● To promote and monitor the marketing of coffee in order to optimise foreign exchange earnings and payments to farmers;
● To control the quality of coffee at all stages of the value chain in order to ensure that all coffee meets the standards prescribed by the Authority;
● To monitor the international price of coffee in order to disseminate the indicative price at which coffee may be traded;
● To conduct market research for the development of the coffee sub sector; ● To promote industries related to coffee;
● To develop and promote coffeespecific extension services;
● To coordinate with key stakeholders to organise farmers in the coffee sub sector;
● To promote the production and marketing of final products of coffee;
● To promote domestic consumption of coffee; and
● To promote coffee tourism in
Uganda.
Coffee is Uganda’s priority commodity, plays a leading role in the livelihoods of many Ugandans and contributes substantially to the national economy. Coffee has contributed an average of 17% to the country’s foreign exchange earnings over the past 20 years.
Today, Uganda is Africa’s top Coffee exporter with earnings of US$ 496 million in the year 2019/2020 and US$ 559 million in the year 2020/2021 from coffee exports.
Uganda recorded its highest coffee exports of 6.08 million 60kg bags in 2020/2021 up from 5.12 million 60kg bags in 2019/2020.
The commodity supports over 1.8 million farming families directly in 126 coffee growing districts in Uganda.
Over the last 30 years, UCDA has grown the industry, hand in hand with stakeholders in the coffee sub sector. This has been done through the development and promotion of coffee through research and extension services and quality control to ensure that all coffee exported meets the required standards. UCDA has also made strides in promoting domestic consumption of Uganda coffee.
The birth of UCDA, therefore, in many ways ties to the story of Uganda’s efforts to revamp economically. The country’s economy had suffered numerous setbacks due to political instability and poor policy choices.
The reform programme that Uganda embarked on in the 1980s addressed both the macro and sectoral issues and focused mainly on the agricultural sector, especially the export crops such as coffee.
At the time, the coffee sub sector challenges were poor quality, poor marketing both on the local and global market, weak regulatory framework, limited crop financing, inefficient management, diseases and poor infrastructure.
To reverse this downward trend, the Government, supported by the World Bank, embarked on reviving the coffee industry through the Agricultural Rehabilitation Project.
The US$ 70- million project ($22 million went into the coffee sub sector) focused on revamping production, rehabilitating processing facilities, and marketing reforms.
However, restructuring the industry chain presented the need for the reorganisation of the institution managing the sector. The seed for restructuring the Coffee Marketing Board (the institution that had the monopoly to run the coffee industry) was therefore planted in 1990.
The Government adopted policy and institutional reforms as part of the structural adjustment programme.
An inter-ministerial committee, which was responsible for the restructuring of the Coffee Marketing Board between 1990 and 1991, was formed.
The committee was tasked with working out the modalities for the establishment of a new fully-fledged authority to regulate the coffee sub sector. The four-man team comprised William Naggaga, Dr Peter Ngategize, Fred Kawuma and James Serunjogi.
In order to develop the best model for the management of the Uganda coffee industry, the team travelled to Latin America and coffee-producing countries in Africa to study their systems. The team then made a report recommending the adoption of the liberal system of Costa Rica and Colombia known by the Latin word cafeteros.
Based on this report, the Uganda Government made the decision to liberalize the sector. The committee then drafted the Bill for the establishment of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. The UCDA Statute was subsequently passed by an Act of Parliament in July 1991. However, before UCDA became operational, the Government created a Coffee Monitoring Unit in the Agricultural Secretariat of the Bank of Uganda.
In January 1991, the Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) was split into two entities; the Coffee Marketing Board Limited and the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. The Authority was tasked with the responsibilities of monitoring and regulating the industry, and advising the government on policy issues while the Board retained the responsibilities of trading and coffee processing.
Given that the project was part of the World Bank’s Agricultural Sector Adjustment Credit (ASAC), the World Bank experts recommended that the four-man team become the core of UCDA. The team worked under the Agricultural Secretariat (based at Bank of Uganda) until 1992, and then became UCDA employees.
The first Board of Directors was chaired by Dr Israel Kibirige Sebunya (RIP), and the first Managing Director was Ernest Kakwano, who was at the time the General Manager CMB. He spearheaded the process of putting together the senior management team.
Key staff members were transferred from the Coffee Marketing Board to serve in the Authority and these included statistics, quality assurance and inspectorate staff. They were responsible for the licensing of coffee processing factories.
Further reforms were undertaken in 1992 and 1994, by unifying the exchange regime. The Coffee Marketing Board Limited gradually liquidated all its assets, marking the end of government involvement in coffee trade and marketing, and thus the start of full liberalization of the sector.
The Authority was charged with promoting, improving and monitoring the marketing of coffee in order to optimize foreign exchange earnings and payments to the farmers. It was also charged with quality control to ensure that all exported coffee met the standards stipulated by the contract between the seller and buyer.
Price control and monitoring also fell under the Authority’s docket in order to ensure that no contract for the sale of coffee was concluded at a price below the minimum price. Among other objectives were the development and promotion of the coffee industry through research and extension, marketing of coffee as a final product and promotion of domestic coffee consumption.
UCDA then licensed private companies to trade in coffee. The first five private export
FORMATION OF UCDA
Amb. William Naggaga
Dr Peter Ngategize
Dr Frederick Kawuma
companies were Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd, Kaliro Coffee Ltd, Kalisizo Ltd and Zigoti Coffee, Mityana and Muhamud Musamba, Kawempe.
Four Cooperative Unions that were processing coffee were also licensed to export: Bugisu, Busoga, Banyakole Kweterana and Masaka.
While coffee production was initially the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, in 1994, there were further policy reviews and it was administratively decided that UCDA takes up the responsibility of production. This constituted the third phase in the formation of UCDA - the phase the country is in today. The mandate in coffee production involved three major broad aspects. UCDA started by supporting the development of planting materials - seed and seedlings. This came at a time when the coffee industry was devastated by the Coffee Wilt Disease.
A decision was made to invite private sector players to manage and multiply the 20 demonstration nurseries, which had the seven lines of clones it inherited from the government. UCDA thus capitalized on the efficiencies of the private sector and multiplied resistant varieties. The second area was to support research. UCDA has continued to provide financing for coffee research, up to 40 per cent of the budget of the National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) comes from the Authority.
The third broad area was to support extension services, which had been greatly affected by the reforms. UCDA employed coffee district extension coordinators and they have continued to grow in number as their responsibilities expanded. The Authority was established with five departments – Finance, Research and Development, Quality, Statistics, and Administration.
The UCDA coffee labaratory located at the UMA Show Grounds at Lugogo, Kampala. UCDA acquires a home
In 1991, the Authority acquired Coffee House on Jinja Road, Kampala, its current headquarters, from the defunct East Mengo Coffee Growers.
Currently, UCDA is in charge of all regulatory aspects of the industry, including enforcing regulations, monitoring quality, market intelligence and information, gathering statistics, undertaking promotions efforts, coffee replanting and expansion to new coffee-growing areas. These functions are carried out in collaboration with other institutions.
