Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Exciting news from Uganda this morning: after nearly 2 years of project development, The Peace Kawomera Cooperative is about to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Agency for International Development (the development wing of the State Department) for a $250,000 infrastructure development project.

Just writing those words is a little surreal. It’s been a long time coming, three trips to Uganda, countless hours meeting, emailing, listening to each other on scratchy internet and cell phones. Most of all, it’s been a tireless effort led by JJ Keki and Muhammed Kakaire Hatibu, Peace Kawomera’s Chairman and Secretary Manager, respectively.

The project will finance the construction of a world-class coffee processing and storage facility, which will avail the farmers with the best tools of the coffee trade. Now, for the first time in the history of coffee cultivation in Uganda, farmers will be able to bring out the full potential of their heirloom Bugisu Arabica varietals. The Cooperative will collect freshly picked, ripe cherries, and then control the process of depulping, fermenting, washing, and drying in a centralized facility. Based on the development of similar processing techniques in neighboring Kenya and Rwanda (where PKC recently visited our partner cooperative there to study the operation of a central washing station, read more), we expect the washing station to dramatically improve the quality of the farmers’ coffee. And we’re looking forward to paying more for each pound of coffee we buy.

None of this would be possible if it were not for the support of our loyal customers, who not only lined up to build a market for this young cooperative’s coffee, but also enlisted the power of their coffee buying dollars, through our profit sharing partnership, and over the past 5 years, raised over $100,000 which bought the land and building materials that gave USAID the confidence they needed to invest further in this remarkable endeavor.

Recently, we made some big changes in our project, and transitioned into a new phase of our partnership with the farmers. Instead of $1.00 per pound or package sold going back to Uganda, we dropped the rebate to $.25. At the same time, we increased the price to the farmers by $.20/lb. We hope to completely phase out the profit-sharing overtime, and replace it with ever increasing prices to the farmers. Please also note that we expect volumes to increase (because of clear price incentives and actual investment in increasing yields through better organic farming practices, pruning, and planting techniques). Instead of creating a continuing subsidy, we created a kind of front-loaded capital fund. This money sustained the rapid growth of a young cooperative, and got them to solid ground. Now they are up and running, and ready to grow.

It’s almost too sweet to believe…but then it gets even better. Two days ago, arrival samples from our two incoming containers (75,000 lbs) arrived. I roasted them immediately, and cupped them yesterday. They are great. Sweeter than ever before, with more clarity and complexity, and a fuller expression of their unique character. All of this was made possible by better management of coffee buying, which the cooperative initiated themselves. And this was using their old machinery and processing methods…if the coffee is already improving this much, imagine how it will taste next year!

Many thanks to Laura Wetzler and Kulanu.org for their tireless work and for forging the initial connection with the Uganda-based USAID office. As with everything we’ve been able to do in Uganda, none of this would be possible without your contribution.

You+coffee you love+farmers who love their coffee+a roasting company who loves farmers+4 years of hard work=

Good coffee getting better+Farmers working smarter not harder+Incomes increasing+An interfaith peace-making initiative moving forward.

That’s an equation we’re really proud of. Not just a cup, but a just cup.

-BCM

Cross posted on the Thanksgiving Coffee Company Blog

Every once in a while we get to see history in the making. It’s one of the most exciting parts of our work, and the fact that we get to enjoy seeing it happen makes it all that much more sweet.

Last week, one of those incredible moments came to pass. A delegation of two farmers from our partner cooperative in Uganda visited our partner cooperative in Rwanda. Muhammed Kakaire Hatibu and Elias Hasalube made the two day-long trip overland from the Peace Kawomera Cooperative in Eastern Uganda to visit the Dukunde Kawa Cooperative, high in the mountains of northern Rwanda.

The trip was a chance for the leadership of Peace Kawomera to study the operation of Dukunde Kawa’s world-class central washing station, and to share their knowledge of organic farming practices with their compatriots in Rwanda.

Beginning over three years ago, Peace Kawomera embarked on a process to completely change the way they processed coffee: instead of each of the cooperative’s farmers picking, depulping, fermenting, washing, and drying on their own farms, the cooperative would build a central washing station where farmers would bring freshly harvested ripe cherries to be processed in daily lots.

The advantages of this more centralized processing are many: quality, for one, is much easier to achieve as the intricacies of the production process can be fine-tuned, controlled, and replicated. Lots can be processed separately, and evaluated before being aggregated, which makes it possible to trace back problems and keep them from bringing great quality down. Experiments can be conducted, and the many variables of production can be fine-tuned. There are also real environmental benefits as the sugar-contaminated water that’s a by-product of the processing can be centralized and treated more thoroughly. Then there are the economic advantages, which come from the efficiencies achieved through scale in the production process. All told, the central washing station provides a strategy to improve quality, reduce pollution, and increase farmer incomes.

There are of course, many challenges. Number one, there’s the cost of the washing station. Number two, there’s the necessary proper management and operation. The cost issue is major, but thanks to our innovative profit-sharing partnership with the cooperative, we’ve been able to channel over $100,000 (albeit slowly, in small increments) to the cooperative. These funds enabled the purchase of land, building materials, and labor to get the project off the ground. The washing station’s completion will be supported in large part thanks to a US Agency for International Development grant/loan package that’s nearly completed.

Which leaves us with the last remaining challenge: how do you run this thing? Policies need to be established, standards need to be set, staff needs to be hired and trained….farmers need to be convinced that they should sell ripe cherry instead of dried beans. Incentivized strategies need to be developed. Where do you start?

Well, if you’re in Uganda, you might as well go ask your neighbor for a little help. Turns out the farmers in Rwanda are about 6 years into a very successful experience running washing stations built to confront the same challenges and produce the same results. So, off they went…farmer to farmer, teaching, learning, sharing experiences and support.

I’m waiting for some photos of the exchange, and look forward to sharing them with you on this blog soon. Thanks to each of you who’ve contributed to this project through your purchase of our Mirembe Kawomera “Delicious Peace” Coffee. I look forward to sharing even sweeter coffee with you soon!

BCM

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