We work with 14 partners worldwide, from who we source our coffee. In Uganda, we work together with Zombo Coffee Partners. On this page you can find everything you need to know about this collaboration.

THE

COUNTRY.

Uganda as a coffee producing country is a diamond in the rough. Landlocked between Sudan and Congo in the West, Kenya in the East and Rwanda and Tanzania in the south it is in the heart of the East African coffee production region. It is one of the largest robusta-producing countries in the world, grown in the low lying central and south-western regions of the country. Arabica grows on higher elevations in the West and North-East. It is also one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in Africa. Farmers in Uganda struggle greatly with changing climate, causing unpredictable rains and droughts. For the sales of their coffee they are largely dependent on a network of local middlemen buying and reselling the coffee primarily focused on their own short-term profit, leaving farmers in the dark.

THE COFFEE.

Uganda is mainly known for high volumes of robusta coffee. However a decent percentage of total production is made up of arabica. For arabica, Mount Elgon is the best known region and denomination. With that comes its own challenges, but the highly competitive market here generally means cooperatives are closer to decent buyers than the other lesser-known arabica producing regions. This is why we’ve chosen to focus on the more disconnected regions, with a ton of obstacles but a huge potential impact. We have been working together with Zombo Coffee Partners in the far north-western corner of the country, stuck between DRC to the west and South Sudan to the north, where the coffee has the potential to be just as good or even better. We buy our washed Arabica from a single washing station called Gonyo Bendo, pictured here. The coffee has a pleasant medium body with notes of cooked fruit and nuts.

OUR

PARTNERSHIP.

Wakuli works together with Zombo Coffee Partners in Nebbi, formed of over 10 locally-owned micro stations. At each station between 85 and 250 farmers deliver their cherries. Farmers and the washing stations share in the ZCP profit through a second payment at the end of the season, and are a big part of strategic decision-making as they build a new type of business in one of the most challenging environments. Harsh climate circumstances and poor infrastructure make it hard for farmers to deliver a reliable volume and quality. Business-wise the local middlemen from big trade houses will do anything to push ZCP off the stage by matching ZCP’s farmer prices, and dropping as soon as ZCP is no longer able to continue purchasing. If they succeed, they would immediately go back to paying shitty prices. You can imagine what would happen to farmers' income in that case. A good reason to make this partnership stick.

THE

CHANGEMAKER.

Dynamic duo Aggrey Chombe and Andy Carlton work under challenging conditions to bring the Nebbi coffee to the world stage of specialty coffee and they are doing an amazing job. Working with 10 washing stations and more than 1.000 farmers provides the expected challenges. How to visit as many of them as possible, how to process the coffee and make it ready for export? The brand new dry mill facility for the last steps in processing the green coffee is proof of their perseverance. We work closely with Aggrey and Andy and over 250 farmers of the Gonyo Bendo washing station on soil, quality, yield and income improvement. This program is an answer to the climate issues like soil erosion, drought and unpredictable rains that farmers are experiencing.

SOME NUMBERS.

250

Farmers

2019

Partnership since

18.480

Total KGs sourced since start of partnership

OUR UGANDAN COFFEE

The coffee from Uganda is available once a year as a Discover Monthly. We sell all of the coffee straight after it comes in, super fresh with a short shelf time. After that another amazing Discover Monthly will be on offer and you will see our Zombo friends in a year. Because coffee is a seasonal product in every producing country and logistics are sensitive to changes, the exact timing of the offer is hard to predict.