NUCAFE
NUCAFE
Empowering small-holder coffee farmers in Uganda to create an end-to-end coffee processing value chain while substantially increasing their incomes.
BCTA MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Alumni
SECTOR
Agriculture, Food & Beverage
HEADQUARTERS
Uganda
REGION OF INITIATIVE
Africa
SDG CONTRIBUTION
The Impact Goal
NUCAFE joined Business Call to Action in December 2020 and made a commitment to empower 50,000 coffee farmers in various coffee value chain projects and upskill 250 farmer associations and cooperatives through the farmer ownership model by 2022.
The Market Gap
In Uganda, most smallholder coffee farmers do not have access to the equipment to process and add value to their raw coffee beans. They are forced to sell unprocessed coffee to middlemen at less than 5% of its retail value. Without access to financing that would enable them to afford processing equipment, over 10 million smallholder coffee farmers can get stuck in a cycle of poverty.
The Business Solution
NUCAFE empowers farmers in Uganda with access to the coffee value chain - all the way from farm processing to manufacturing and exporting. Access to these services is enhanced with technical skills training, business development, and farmer organization governance and management training. Over the years, NUCAFE’s services have increased the household income of its associated farmers by 250% for graded coffee and 900% for roasted and ground coffee. NUCAFE further continues to invest in cost reduction services and climate resilience building and consequently has invested in industrial solar energy generation whereby farmers will lower costs of processing coffee by at least 40%.