Background of this coffee in the Netherlands

Uganda

Uganda is already well-known for excellent robusta coffee.  In recent years Uganda has begun to build a second reputation, as an origin of fine arabica coffees.  Fertile land, volcanic soils, plentiful rainfall and sunshine, good varietals, diverse pockets of suitable micro-climates and altitudes, all combine with improved production practices to contribute to this emerging origin of really tasty specialty coffees.

The Zombo region, the Alur Highlands, is for most coffee people a blind spot on the map. It is located on the western banks of the Nile, the river that leaves Lake Albert and starts its long, meandering journey to the Mediterranean.  On this hilly plateau, the Alur people speak a Nilotic language which is not related to the majority Bantu languages of sub-Saharan Africa.  They have strong cross-border family relationships in DR Congo, next door. 

Zombo Coffee Partners is pioneering an innovative business model, a unique African hybrid that combines a private shareholder company with a group of smallholder cooperatives by offering the coops shares in the company.  Zombo works in close partnership with the coops, helping their members to add value by improving quality, and sharing profits with them when we sell their coffee, all with a mindset and focus of full price transparency and open book keeping.  Next to all this, Zombo has a strong focus on helping the farmers to break free of the C-price trap for coffee as a commodity, a mission that lies very close to the heart of This Side Up.

Zombo works with a concept called coffee microstations. The coffee microstation is an African farmer-owned business and processing model which produces consistently high quality coffee at a very small scale. It is a miniature central coffee washing station that is within the means of a small group of farmers to construct and manage, with a minimum of external support.  Its purpose is for smallholders by their investments and their work to increase the quality, consistency and selling price of their coffee, and thereby maximise their income and participate meaningfully in the coffee value chain. The following ones work with us:

Ajere is a breakaway group from a registered cooperative society which had not traded its members’ coffee for some years. In 2017-18 the members worked with Zombo’s development partner, Agency for Community Empowerment (AFCE), to construct a new microstation within the boundary of Zombo Town, but not inside the town. The specialist equipment and materials for this project came from Oxfam Uganda, matched by farmer contributions of land, time, skills, local materials and cash.

Culamuk arose out of a project funded in 2015 by Oxfam Uganda and implemented by Twin UK. Its members built a microstation in 2 months and produced a small volume of high-scoring coffee which was sold to Atlas Coffee Importers in Seattle, along with that of the other two 2015 microstations, Leda and Pamitu. 

Gonyobendo was formed by Nile Highland Arabica Coffee Farmers Association and was given a pulper by USAID.  It worked for a number of seasons supplying a multinational exporter.  In 2018 the group began working with Zombo.

Ndhew is a registered cooperative society.  In 2017-18 the members worked with our development partner, Agency for Community Empowerment (AFCE), to construct a new microstation within the boundary of Zombo Town. The specialist equipment and materials for this project came from Irish Aid through Oxfam, matched by farmer contributions of land, time, skills, local materials and cash. 

B