An introduction to the Historical Origin of Ugandan Coffee beans

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The fact of Uganda

Population: 32 million

Area: 241038 square kilometers

Location: located in the Great Lakes region of Africa, bordered by Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the west; North Sudan; Kenya in the east; Lake Victoria, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south.

Capital: Kampala

Official language: English. Also Ganda or Luganda, Niger-Congo, Nile-Sahara, Swahili, Arabic.

Monetary unit: shilling

Overview of Ugandan Coffee

Producing areas: Bugisu (Mount Elgonne), Lake Victoria Basin, Western Uganda, West Nile

Treatment: insolation and washing. Drugar (such as sun exposure) and wugar (water washing).

The British Imperial rating system is still used: AA,A,B,C,PB (Bean), E (Elephant)

The harvest season is from October to February. The farming period is from April to August; flying crops (harvest in the second season with fewer flowers and less high-quality fruit)

Exports: the country is inland, so goods must travel by truck or rail to the seaport of Mombasa (Kenya) or Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) via neighboring countries.

Arabica, altitude: 1300-2300 m

Robusta: 9-1500 meters above sea level

Number of small farms: 500000

Number of households with income from coffee: 3.5 million

Average output value: 3 million bags

Arabica variety: Kent, typica,SL-14,SL-28

Uganda is known as the pearl of Africa. Winston Churchill hailed it as a symbol of Africa in his book. Uganda has been ignored by the world for nearly a century, and now, as coffee circles in the European Union, the United States and Japan begin to pay more attention to Uganda, the country's coffee stands out and joins the ranks of boutique coffee producers. Local coffee growers and exporters began to shift from mass production of coffee to emphasis on coffee quality so that they could benefit more from it. This is true for both Luodou and Arabica beans. Because of the quality certification of coffee in Uganda, inferior coffee is no longer grown there, but high-quality coffee.

The birthplace of Luodou

Since Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Uganda is the hometown of Luodou. At first, the British encouraged the cultivation of Luoda, a low-altitude species, in Uganda. Today, Uganda has become the second largest exporter of Luodou in the world. Today, Luo Dou has been regarded by many people as inferior beans, Luo Dou is still enduring humiliation. In fact, if carefully cultivated and planted, Luodou has been considered by many people in the industry to be a species of great value. However, people narrowly mix it into other coffees to make a semantic concentrate. Poor Robusta.

Some groups are trying to ensure that the planting procedures in Robsta, Uganda are correct and consistent. Many institutions are leading the effort, such as LEAD (the World Organization for Agricultural Development for livelihoods and Enterprises), an American organization that works to improve coffee quality and the income of coffee farmers in Uganda. The Coffee quality Association (CQI) is also involved, and in August 2009, CQI hosted a meeting in Uganda, one of which was to establish an agreement on the quality of robusta coffee. Ted Ringer, executive director of CQI, believes Uganda's Robusta will soon emerge from the shadows. "it seems to me that Uganda is going to end its main supply of high-quality robusta coffee because of its history, tradition and experience in producing washed robusta coffee," he said. just as Colombia is the main supply of high-quality Arabica coffee. "

Eighty-five percent of the coffee farmers in the country are producing rosebeans. Because the economic benefits of growing medium-fruit coffee (Luodou) are much greater than those of Arabica. "for Americans, there is no way to find reliable suppliers in Uganda," Ringer said. The baker has no way to bake bad beans into good ones. Therefore, our task is to set standards for the quality of Luodou in Uganda. Only in this way can the quality of Luodou imported into the United States be guaranteed. Only in this way can the concept of "boutique Luodou coffee" be widely spread. Rather than "quantity", we prefer Uganda's Luodou coffee to a qualitative leap. Only in this way can Luodou farmers see the same hope as Arabica farmers.

The arrival of Arabica

Uganda began to grow Arabica beans a hundred years ago. Today, most of the country's Arabica is grown in the southeast of Mount Elgon, 4321 meters above sea level, and some grow along the border between Uganda and Kenya. The Bugiso region, which contains almost the entire Elgon Mountains, one of the oldest volcanoes on the continent, provides fertile soil for the growth of Arabica. Looking ahead, the hillside is covered with endless coffee trees, including other crops, such as bananas, corn, pears, and some other beans. What a diversified planting area.

In addition to the above-mentioned areas, there are other areas that stand out, such as the coffee cultivation of Cajuva is also very developed. Recently, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has changed its export approval rules to allow new names for mixed containers and emerging subregions. The raw bean cleaning station is under construction, and farmers' groups have joined the trade union. The average size of each small Arabica farm is 0.36 hectares, or 0.9 acres, and can produce high-quality Arabica coffee. Mainly Typica and Kent. Its total production is 15% of the whole country.

The trouble and transformation of growth

For Ugandan coffee bean producers, both infrastructure and transportation systems are a huge challenge to the quality of coffee beans. They should start to pay attention to the traceability of the place of origin, so that they can find places with high production demand for improvement and quality. Without traceability, you don't know where to produce good coffee. But the problem is that raw bean recycling in Uganda is processed and paid for in jin. So, you don't know where that kilo of beans comes from. Now, exporters and importers are beginning to emphasize the traceability of Ugandan coffee beans. Not only that, coffee consumption in Uganda is also growing rapidly. In the capital of Uganda, many cafes began to spread coffee culture, and boutique coffee culture began to prevail in the capital of Uganda. In the game cafe, you can even see a menu that can separate Arabica and Robusta coffee. The country also holds a national barista competition every autumn.

Summary

To sum up, we have seen the vigorous development of the coffee industry in Uganda, with coffee only 100 years old, boutique coffee 10 years and Uganda National barista Competition only 8 years old. So it will take a long time for the fundamental transformation of the coffee industry in Uganda.

Coffee production in the country has declined continuously in the past three years because of drought.

Rainfall delays crop ripening and a new round of harvest.

Uganda, Africa's largest exporter of coffee beans, this season's coffee production was 24 per cent lower than expected because crops were severely affected by drought, according to a farmers' group.

From October 1 this year to September next year, East African countries may produce 3.2 million bags and export 3 million bags of coffee (each weighing 60kg or 132lb). Regulators' estimates for August were 4.2 million and 3.8 million, respectively.