Hello! Everyone, I am Elizabeth, CEO of Kaffe Farmers Coffee, supporting self-reliance of women smallholder coffee farmers.

Kyaffee Farmer Coffee Founder and CEO,

Elizabeth Nalugemwa

Uganda is Africa's second largest coffee producer. Coffee is an important cash crop, accounting for 20% of Uganda's foreign exchange income. According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), coffee exports have increased by more than 50% in the past four years, and the coffee industry is leading Uganda's economy.

The majority of workers in the Uganda coffee industry are female smallholder farmers. Women provide most labor in coffee production, but the economic gender inequality in the coffee industry is still a very severe issue. According to Africa Farm, women's contribution to the coffee industry is 65% higher than men. Otherwise, women have 23% less economic power than men's.

One of the reasons for the low economic gender inequality is the low price of the coffee bean harvested by female smallholder farmers. They are struggling to make a living due to their low earning. As a coffee smallholder farmer, I started Kyaffe Farmers Coffee for a better life and self-reliance for Ugandan female smallholder farmers.

Kyaffe Farmers Coffee is a company that supports the self-reliance of Uganda's female coffee smallholder farmers. We purchase green coffee beans from female coffee farmers at reasonable prices and process them into finished products. We sell roasted coffee beans in Kyaffe stores and supermarkets. It allowed female farmers to send their children to school and purchase food for their families.

In 2018, Kyaffe Farmers Coffee launched a coffee briquette project to recycle discarded coffee husks and agricultural waste to prevent environmental degradation and empower women. 8 out of 10 households in Uganda cook their food using firewood or charcoal. 16 million tons of wood are cut each year for this purpose. In addition, 1,500 tons of agricultural waste are thrown away every year. It leads to other environmental problems, such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, and flooding.

We collects coffee and agricultural waste to create an eco-friendly coffee briquette. It avoids cutting down trees to make firewood and charcoal, and protects the environment by recycling agricultural waste. Moreover, we are working to strengthen women's economic empowerment through training and sales of coffee briquette.

Kyaffe Farmers Coffee has trained 90 women and sells eco-friendly fuel through the coffee briquette project. However, many Ugandan females still do not have the opportunity to strengthen their economic capacity. Kyaffe Farmers Coffee will open a Kyaffe store to boost briquette sales in a new location so that more Ugandan women can empower their economic power through coffee briquette.

Why don't we present a better life to Ugandan women smallholder coffee farmers and their families with the price of a cup of coffee?