Uganda’s Coffee Authority to pull out from ICO

By Charles Katabalwa

17^th Feb 2022

Officials from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) have threatened to pull out from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) claiming that Uganda is not benefiting from it.

ICO is the body that brings together coffee exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation.

Dr Charles Mugoya, the chair of UCDA board, while addressing Journalists at Uganda Media center said Uganda and other ICO member countries annually contribute over UGX Shs171m as subscription fees but ICO uses the money to support their secretariat instead of building capacity and providing support for value chain actors.

Mugoya adds that  ICO has continued to suppress Uganda because it only allows this country to export row coffee rather than processed or valuated coffee which earns 5 times more than row coffee where Uganda would be earning handsomely for farmers to get courage.

Mugoya has disclosed that ICO has made sure that Brazil and Colombia coffee dominate the classification of coffee with Uganda’s coffee always regarded as other coffee that leads Uganda to lose a lot of money

He calls upon Ugandan coffee growers to stay calm because ICO is neither a coffee regulatory nor marketing body, but rather a global coffee monitoring system that does not participate in determining coffee prices.