Continental Trade & Commodity Services

African Coffee Academy, based in Kampala, has been a partner and service provider to CTCS for several years. They offer expert advice and assistance on all aspects of coffee. ACA ( www.africacoffeeacademy.com) provide education, training and professional services to all involved in the coffee supply chain on all aspects of coffee. They have provide... d CTCS with logistics and quality support and expert assessments on the internal market. ACA is a primary partner with UCDA in addressing the issue of coffee quality in Uganda. Since the liberalisation of the industry in Uganda, one major barrier to production of quality coffee, are the coffee aggregators, known as 'middle men'. Mr Godfrey Batte, Executive Director of ACA, reports that the farmers are being cheated from revenue by unscrupulous agents, who are putting quick profits ahead of good quality coffees which can achieve premium rates. The 'middle men' are traders in the supply chain who buy coffee from the farmer. According to Mr Batte, they buy as cheaply as they can, bulk the good and bad together, adulterate the coffee, transport it and sell it to the exporters for processing. Their sole focus is on short-term volume and profit. ACA report that Uganda has the highest number of small holder coffee farmers in the world and over 50 percent of them sell their harvests to 'middle men' because they cannot easily access the market and neither are they in cooperatives or organisations that can help sell their coffee to the international trade. Middle men are buying coffee from farmers when it is still on the trees, as un-ripened cherry and even in flower form. They pay the farmer in advance, at times when farmers are in need of cash and have no alternative financing options. The middle men supervise the harvesting of the coffee, focusing solely on maximising their volume at that moment, with no regard to the welfare of the trees for next season's crop. The poor processing leads to low premiums, hence the middle men, driving the quality down because of these ...Read More