MBALE – Farmers under Bugisu Cooperative Union [BCU] have appealed to government to support them with a soluble coffee processing plant, saying soluble coffee earns better prices on the international market.
Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the BCU chairman while addressing farmers and delegates at the recently concluded 62nd annual general meeting [AGM] said value addition is the only way to go if farmers and government want to get more money from the coffee produced in the country.
Mafabi, also a Member of Parliament representing Budadiri West Constituency in Sironko district, revealed that BCU needs about Shs 430 billion to purchase the machinery and establish a plant needed to process soluble coffee.
When government avails the union [BCU] with the machinery it will help them [members] to produce soluble coffee which can be exported outside the country at a high price compared to that of green coffee beans,” Nandala said.
According to the International Coffee Organisation [ICO], global soluble coffee increased by 24.6 percent in May 2023 to 1.07 million bags from 0.86 million bags in May 2022 while soluble coffee’s share in the total exports of all forms of coffee was 9.6 percent [measured on a moving 12-month average] in May 2023, up from 9.0 percent in May 2022.
Meanwhile, John Musila, the BCU vice-chairman was happy that there has been an increase in the number of farmers bringing their coffee to BCU.
Musila, also a Member of Parliament representing Bubulo East Constituency in Namisindwa district said different zonal meetings organised by the BCU board and other stakeholders have helped increase coffee stocks this year, as currently, all the union’s stores are full with 8 million kilogrammes of coffee up from an average of 6mln kilogrammes they used to collect in the previous years.
He urged coffee farmers in Bugisu Sub-region to always sell their coffee to BCU, saying the union offers good prices but also farmers benefit in terms of getting free fertilisers, and farm tools among others.
The State Minister for Cooperatives, Fredrick Gume Ngobi who was the Guest of Honour at the BCU AGM held in Mbale City on June 30, 2023, pledged government support to the coffee farmers in Bugisu Sub-region, saying he would present their request for soluble coffee processing equipment to President Yoweri Museveni.
Stephen Mazune, a coffee farmer from Sironko Valley Zone in Sironko district urged BCU leaders to avail coffee pulp machines at all primary levels such that farmers can pulp their Arabica coffee in time.
“Most farmers fail to pulp their coffee in time due to lack of pulping machines which affects the quality of coffee, leading to low prices on the world market. This is because the taste is not good compared to coffee which is pulped in time,” Mazune said.
He also called for payment of farmers in time by the BCU authorities, saying farmers have lots of problems that need money.
https://thecooperator.news/bcu-to-repair-dilapidated-primary-societies/
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