Climate-smart Coffee Uganda

Uganda is one of the world's largest coffee producers. The coffee sector is central to the country's economy. It employs about 1.8 million smallholder farmers and coffee exports generate 20-30% of foreign exchange earnings. Yet, climate change is expected to make land less suitable for coffee and reduce yields in the future. The upcoming European Union Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) is an opportunity to make the coffee sector more resilient. However, it could also result in more price reductions and lower quality in the short term.

In the European Union, the demand for sustainably sourced and high-quality coffee is high. So, in 2024 the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) will start the Climate-smart Coffee Uganda project. This project will help Ugandan small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to export traceable, climate-smart coffee to Europe. Also, it will help them meet the requirements under the upcoming EU legislation.

Project goals

This project aims to create an inclusive Ugandan coffee sector. This includes producing and exporting traceable, climate-smart coffee that meets EU requirements.

To achieve this, the project focuses on:

• Effective service delivery;
• Improving the climate resilience of the coffee sector;
• Increasing the export of traceable, climate-smart coffee to EU markets.

Project details and activities

The project will begin in 2024. It will start with an inception phase of 14 months, in which we test the project outline and feasibility and make adjustments where needed. Based on the learnings of the inception phase, we will decide how to proceed with the project for the remaining four years of its total runtime.

During the inception phase, we will carry out the following activities:

• Service needs assessments: to understand what kind of services are already offered on the market to help SMEs meet the EUDR requirements;
• Roundtable discussions with exporters (multinationals or SMEs): to better understand their view on the Ugandan coffee sector, the impact of climate change and the upcoming EUDR legislation;
• Identification of EU importers that are interested in sourcing traceable, climate-smart coffee from Uganda;
• Root cause analyses: to go from traditional farming to climate-smart farming.

Also, in this phase, we will seek project participants in the coffee sector who want to work towards a more climate-resilient coffee sector. We will target companies who want to export traceable, climate-smart coffee at a fair price, learn from each other and exchange views on compliance with EU legislation.

Project participants

During the inception phase, the project participants include:

• Alumni from a previous CBI coffee project in Uganda;
• Other Ugandan coffee-exporting SMEs;
• EU importers.

Get involved as an importer

Are you interested in contributing to climate resilience, sustainability and inclusivity in the coffee sector in Uganda? Are you an importer looking for EUDR-compliant coffee exporters? We are looking for partners who are willing to cooperate with us to help the Ugandan coffee sector become compliant.

Contact CBI to get more information or to explore potential collaboration in this project.

Interested?

More information about the application process will be available at the beginning of 2024.