UCDA takes coffee farmer registration gospel to religious leaders ahead of EU deadline

The Uganda Coffee Development Authority has held a meeting with religious leaders under the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda(IRCU) in a bid to popularize the registration of coffee farmers ahead of the start of the  European Union guidelines on exports.

The UCDA team met with officials led by Msgr. Dr. John B. Kauta Secretary General, Uganda Episcopal Conference in Kampala.

“We request your support and endorsement towards registration of coffee farmers. The new European Union regulations are in good faith. It is not only applicable to Uganda but many countries that grow coffee in the world have to comply.  This regulation aims to ensure protection of biodiversity by ensuring coffee is grown from deforestation free areas. When our coffee is taken to the EU market, the burden of proof will be on the exporter to show that the product is not from a deforested area,” said Robert Nangatsa, an extension manager at UCDA.

He said means coffee farmers around the country have to be registered and their coffee gardens mapped using GPS coordinates and given unique identifiers so that in case all coffee exported can be traced.

He said in case anyone produces coffee from a deforested area, it will be easy to identify and will not be accepted on the EU market which currently accounts for over 70% of all Uganda’s coffee exports.

He said exporters will therefore be required to prove their coffee exports are not from deforested areas.

“If our coffee is traceable, it will fetch a higher value than one which is untraceable. Traceability is about transparency.  These people are looking at transparency in transactions. With this system, it will be possible to audit trading companies to know how much they pay farmers and how they are paid abroad. You will be able to know whether exporters are ripping farmers or not.”

Officials dispelled rumors that the registration exercise is meant to provide data to URA to be able to tax coffee farmers.

“ Why would government  wait for this time?  This is registration for purposes of trading. This law doesn’t apply to only Africa but globally. It also affects EU. Any exporting from EU to Africa must also conform to this regulation. As Ugandans like so much to speculate but we are here to fight falsehoods about this registration. The challenge is that there are people without any information who  make wild allegations,” Nangatsa said.

IRCU Secretary General, Joshua Kitakule welcomed the meeting that he said was fruitful.

“It is important as coffee farmers to register for these EU regulations because we don’t want to lose the market. As the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda and faith communities, we have a role to play in this to ensure farmers get the right information about the registration,” Kitakule said.

He said they are to sign an MOU with UCDA which will clearly spell out their roles.

“We are also  going to offer our structures, both the social media, the televisions, the associations, but more importantly, the spaces around the mosque and the churches to ensure that every Friday, every Saturday, every Sunday, there is a message going out to the coffee farmers about the importance of registration, because we think that this regulation is critical, and improving on quality, but also ensuring that we keep the European Union market.”

Uganda’s coffee exports have in the past decade more than doubled from 3million bags to over 6.3 million bags per year.

Coffee employs 1.8 million households in Uganda and 12 million people directly.

This year, Uganda’s total coffee exports to Europe rose to 73% of the country’s entire coffee exports.