Uganda Bulaago Natural (2023)

The Region

Mt Elgon is an extinct volcano on the border with Kenya and is thought to be the oldest volcano on the African continent. The massive base and gentle slopes support thousands of smallholder farmers, with arabica coffee is cultivated across a broad band around the mountain between 1,200 and 2,200masl. Volcanic soils, plentiful rain, high altitude and abundant sunshine are all contributing factors to the excellent terroir of the Mt Elgon region.

The region is steeped in coffee tradition. In fact, Zukuka Bora’s Tangwen coffee comes from the very micro-region where Arabica coffee was first planted in around 1920, after being brought from farms in neighbouring Kenya. Despite the rich history, the story of specialty coffee is more mixed.

After independence in 1962, Uganda had a fine reputation for coffee, with strong cooperatives working across the mountain - most famously the Bugisu Cooperative Union. Quality cultivation and harvesting practices were employed and the industry boomed. However, over time, quality started to become compromised due to a variety of reasons and buyers started to become (rightly) suspicious of the quality coming out of the country.  As a result, prices plummeted, and for many farmers growing coffee was simply not economically viable. There was very little differential local market for quality and so the quality-driven processes were largely abandoned.

In recent years however, as the specialty industry has grown producers have started to realise that there is demand and economic incentive for high quality coffee.