There’s entrepreneurs, and then there’s… Andy & Aggrey from Zombo Coffee Partners, operating in the West Nile province in Uganda. These two are realizing their vision, against the odds. They don’t write pitch decks, or draft fancy financial models, or join accelerator programs. They are going out, every day, on some of the roughest roads you can imagine, in one of the remote corners of the African continent, to bring a bit more fairness, decency and hope for a better future into the lives of the coffee farmers they work with. “Sometimes I wonder how hard you should make things for yourself, in order to create the reality you want to see”, is what Andy said over a cup of coffee - yes ;-) - during our last encounter. Here’s what he meant: - They are producing specialty coffee in Uganda, whilst Uganda does not have a reputation on the market for specialty coffee, compared to coffee from neighboring countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, which roasters immediately recognize and therefore will pay a higher price for. - Uganda is landlocked and they operate from one of the remotest corners of the country - 8 hours drive from the capital, Kampala. - They exclusively work with smallholders (typically farms of about 1 acre in size) who produce their coffee, which means there are thousands of different producers, and it is difficult to control quality on a farm level. - On top of this, they have enabled these farmers to set up their own microstations, to do pre-processing of the coffee. These cooperatives are run independently. They lead to economic activity, employment deep in the villages, value creation and investments into some of the remotest rural areas on the continent, but this model also makes it more difficult to create coffees which taste the same year-on-year. And that makes it more difficult to sell, because buyers prefer consistency over the surprises from nature. Even with these incredibly difficult circumstances, it looks like their company will finally be profitable this year. They have found some fantastic customers, who are supporting them on their journey - like This Side Up Coffees and Wakuli in the Netherlands. Grounded Investment Company (https://lnkd.in/eHDANcqv) invested in Andy & Aggrey and their team. We are very proud to be a partner of this company - and their coffee is absolutely fantastic. There's a lot more to talk about - such as the work they're doing on regenerative agriculture... Let us know if you’d like to come and have a taster and we can tell you all about it ;-) #regenerativeagriculture #specialtycoffee #westnileprovince #zebrasnotunicorns
Goed verhaal. Dit geeft de koffie industrie weer een mooi zetje.
This is very inspiring story