Uganda in a $24.8 million cocoa factory plan to improve smallholder farmers’ income

For many years smallholder cocoa farmers in Uganda have been selling their produce through middlemen who pay small amounts for a kilo of wet beans as compared to market price, a practice that has kept the growers in in a cycle of poverty.

This has been happening because the farmers lack facilities to dry their beans to secure a higher price than if sold wet, or freshly picked.

Most middlemen have their own facilities for drying the beans and so, they dry them and then sell them to an exporter or trading company they have ties with at 7,800 Ugandan shillings ($2.12) way high as opposed to 3,000 shillings a kilogram for the wet beans they pay farmers.

However, this could be a thing of the past as the government of Uganda is in a 91.5 billion shilling ($24.8 million) cocoa factory plan that is posed to end the smallholders’ woes.

The facility which had a land set for its construction at Bundibugyo District which produces more than 70% of the cocoa the country exports, is set to open in the next year.

“The factory will buy cocoa beans directly from farmers as well as offer post-harvest training to help them produce a better quality cocoa bean as they can then sell at a higher price,” said Aida Vumilia, lead researcher on the project and agro-industry projects officer at the Uganda Development Corporation, the government agency that promotes industrial and economic development.

Most farmers are selling it raw because they have no facilities. The factory, through third-party processing opportunities, means farmers can take their cocoa to dry and sell it at better prices, added Vumilia.

According to Light Kisembo, district production officer for Bundibugyo, in charge of production in the government’s agricultural department at the district level, the processing factory will change farmers’ fortunes especially those that have been selling fresh cocoa beans.

“The facility will end the problem of middlemen and the meager payments per kilo of the produce,” said Kisembo.

Uganda cocoa beans export value

Despite the worldwide demand for cocoa beans and the export value of this product in Uganda set at over $90 million, 90% of the country’s tens of thousands of cocoa farms have small holdings of 1.5 to 2.5 acres of cocoa growing land, and many cocoa farmers live hand to mouth.

One Kisembo Jacques, fair trade and organic project coordinator at Semuliki Cooperative Union, a farmer’s union that produces and exports cocoa beans says the growers hurry to sell while the cocoa is wet and fear staying with it because of the fluctuating prices.

“To benefit from cocoa, there is a need to organize into smaller groups and get rid of middlemen if they want better prices, but most farmers live hand to mouth and are not patient,” said the officer.

His organization is now trying to change the narrative by educating cocoa farmers on better farming practices and encouraging them to plant some food crops, alongside their cocoa beans, to combat food insecurity.