Our Story

In 2018, Manzi Junior Francis and Elly Wakadala, both fresh from the University realised that finding a job in Uganda’s job market was just as hard as starting a business. The latter, however, promised greater benefits if one found a breakthrough than the former. So, we both decided that we shall hedge our bets in pursuing the business path. Through the generous support of our Parents and our friend, Mr. Phillip Kamutenga, we started out as coffee cherry sourcing agent for multinational corporations, most specifically AgriEvolve, which was a subsidiary at the time of Kyagalanyi, a company of EDF&Man. Being novices in the sector, our limited knowledge of the business terrain would reveal by lots of mistakes we made, accompanied by obvious effects on our cashflow.

In 2020, however, we landed a promising business opportunity. Ibero Uganda Limited, a company of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) approached with interest to collaborate on a project to produce traceable and consistent high quality dried Ugandan arabica from Kasese region. This business opportunity enabled to transition from coffee cherry suppliers to suppliers of processed coffee. We immediately established a drying facility, erected drying beds and with consistent financing, we expanded our coffee farmers supplier network. Over the course of two years, we have moved from supplying cherries to produce up to three (3) containers of traceable high quality Ugandan arabica from southwestern region of Uganda.

Owing to such successes, we have recently decided to diversify into processing washed arabicas. To do so, we have established a washing station at Rwimi, located on Kasese-Fort Portal Road. Our goal is to contribute to improvement of supply of high quality Ugandan arabicas that increase confidence in buyers of coffee from Uganda coffee market. In pursuing this goal, we are cognizant that it cannot be achieved without attending to farmers’ needs and concerns of sustainability of coffee crop production. Which is why, we have several programmes that attend to farmers’ needs: for example, we advance repeat clients with loans to purchase inputs, such as fertilisers, as well as to enable them smoothen their consumption expenditure, especially during off-peak season, prior to the start of the marketing season, during which they are mostly in need of financing. In addition, we seek to partner with organisations that are keen in promoting agro-forestry agriculture, by ensuring that coffee farmers are not only provided with knowledge, but also with the means to reforest their gardens. Reforestation has obvious benefits, such as combating long term adverse effects of climate change, as well as providing rich canopy, which is a source of manure that arises from decomposing fallen leaves.