Farmers in West Nile rewarded for quality coffee production

The bonus is an initiative of the Agency for Community Empowerment (AFCE), an organisation in charge of building the capacity of coffee farmers in the Sub-region.

According to the organisation, inappropriate methods of drying coffee have been the major influence behind poor quality coffee.

Aggrey Chombe, the Executive Director of AFCE, says the bonus is 33 percent of the total profits realised by the company in a given coffee season. 

That if the company makes a profit of Shs100 billion, the farmers will receive 33 percent after sales bonus. 

The initiative is a booster for production of good quality coffee that can compete on the international market, a trend that saw increase in company exports in 2022.

“Last year, we exported two containers of coffee as a result of good quality assurance maintained by coffee farmers, this has made us to place rewards to our coffee farmers for the quality assurance standard maintained," Chombe said.

To mitigate the ill-suited methods, the company introduced shade coffee drying where farmers are clustered into 10 micro-stations. Adherence to this practice, according to Chombe, has enabled them to improve quality.

The Zombo Deputy Resident Commissioner, Grace Atim, urged farmers to utilise the government-funded Parish Development Model (PDM) for seed capital to maintain the coffee quality at international standards.

In the past two years, the price of coffee in the area dropped from Shs12,000 per Kilogramme to Shs7,500.