The Ugandan coffee sector has started preparing itself to fulfill the new European Union regulations on coffee set to take effect on July, 1, 2025.
The new regulations seek to ensure that any coffee planted after 2020 in a deforested area is not allowed into the EU market
Speaking during a stakeholders' dialogue organize by SEATINI at Hotel Africa spoke of strategies to meet the standards.
"The regulation requires that we trace our coffee from the garden to the market, which means we must know who is producing the coffee, where are they located, which coffee are they growing and this requires us to file a due diligence certificate. So, for those exporting coffee, they must file a due diligence certificate which shows their location in terms of GPS coordinates," Dr. Gerald Kyaalo, Director Development Services at UCDA said.
"If you have more than 10 acres of land you shall require a polygon map. A polygon is kind of the entire drawing of your garden and if you have less than 10 acres we require, one GPS point is mandatory for us to access the European Union market."
SEATINI's Herbert KafeeroKyalo emphasized the need to have a national traceability system by December 31, 2024, which includes comprehensive farmer registration and location data.
" We need a national database where we have all our coffee farmers and their locations and whether they have four acres or more. We must have it such that our exporters are able to access the system, download the due diligence certificate that shows that the coffee we are exporting is actually not related to or is not resulting from deforestation, for us to achieve that, we need to register and map all our farmers before January, 1."
Christine Kaaya Nakimwero, the Shadow Minister for Water and Environment, advised UCDA to prioritize educating all farmers on the benefits of the new regulations to avoid misconceptions.
She emphasized the importance of inclusivity, particularly for small-scale coffee farmers.
"As we navigate the new EU directives, it is crucial we ensure every coffee farmer understands its impact. Transparency and education will empower them to thrive," she said.
"We need to be clear on the relationship between the database and taxation of farmers to avoid any misconceptions that could drive them away from compliance."
Herbert Kafeero Programs and Communications Manager at SEATINI Uganda explained the importance of the new regulations to Uganda.
urged all coffee farmers to meet several traceability requirements by the deadline of December 31, 2024 citing the significance of these directives for Uganda because we need the EU market.
"These regulations are important to us as a country because they spell out a number of requirements that we have to meet. We have to meet these requirements because the European Union is a very important export market for most of our agricultural products, in fact if we talk about coffee, 60% of it goes to European Union and countries in Europe. So it means we cannot afford to lose out on this very important market," Kafeero said.
Kafeero emphasized Uganda's need to access every available market for its coffee.
However, he noted there insufficient funding for UCDA which he said could potentially hinder the mapping process..
"European Union deforestation regulation is very tight but challenge with the mandated institution which is Uganda coffee Development Authority is that it tabled a budget of shs35.6 billion in order to enable them undertake mapping and traceability but government was able to allocate shs13.9 billion which is less of what they needed," Kafeero noted.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He called on government to empower UCDA with a financial muscle to undertake mapping, stakeholder consultations and be able to capture the details, the traceability requirements and also submit that report before the deadline.
Benjamin Mizindo, a coffee farmer from Mityana, said that the new regulations will benefit them but noted concerns with the deadline.
"The deadline to operationalize these directives is very near. It is a few months left to January 2025. When we look at traceability, very many farmers are going to be left out because when you looks at the communities, it will take some good time to trace all of them that means that UCDA may end up considering a particular section of farmers which they can easily trace. Let us hope some of us won't be excluded."
