Government through the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) is set to register coffee farmers across the country ahead of the new European Union Export Regulations deadline.
The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will come into effect on December 30, 2024.
This requires exporters and farmers to prove that coffee or produce destined for exportation to the European market, is from land where no deforestation has occurred since 2020.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Kampala, Gerald Kyalo, the Director Development Services at UCDA said the registration set to commence next week, is not only meant to register farmers but to ensure they adhere to the new regulations.
He explained that the registration process is meant for traceability and making sure Uganda’s coffee accesses the EU market.
“We must be able to trace our coffee and that is the bottom line. Traceability of coffee means we conduct farmer registration but in reality, we will be capturing geo location of the farms and few details of farmers,” Kyalo said.
The regulation requires evidence that coffee doesn’t contribute to deforestation and for us to show this evidence we need to trace our coffee back to the farmer wherever they are.”
He noted that farmers with 10 acres of coffee will have polygons of their farms for record and traceability purposes.
Coffee exporters will be required to trace the coffee along the value chain, map every chain operator between the producer and their warehouse.
The registration process is set to be conducted annually as each year, new entrants join the coffee value chain.
The EU comprises of 26 countries. 66% of Uganda coffee export share goes to the EU countries. Last year, Uganda fetched US$1.4 billion from coffee exports.
Uganda has about 2.3 million farmers. Of these, only about 500,000 are documented.
During a presentation, Samson Emong, the Country Manager, Cafe Africa, said Uganda coffee doesn’t contribute to deforestation, however, it is hard to provide data and evidence within the EU parameters.
He added, “Through these initiatives we will be able to prove to the EU. The EUDR is a law that we agree with. We should be able to conserve the environment. The access and maintenance of the EU market is important to us.”
The aBi, an agribusiness firm, recently committed funds to register between 900,000 and 1 million farmers. The rest of the costs will be met by the government.
In the last financial year, the UCDA asked for Shs 30 billion to facilitate this process. However, the sector was only allocated Shs 13 billion.