Apart from tea and coffee that remained the major cash crops in Uganda on the International market over the years, cocoa exporters believed that cocoa also had the potential increased demand internationally. Wilfred Aliganyira the ESCO Branch Manager in Bundibugyo one of the cocoa exporters said Uganda’s favorable soils and conducive environment had not been utilized fully. “We see many people demanding for cocoa actually the demand is high compared to the supply.” Aliganyira added that despite efforts by exporters to improve the sector, more needed to be done including the government’s will to improve the sector. “There is a little being done by the government to assist us to train the farmers because basically this is done by ESCO. We train the farmers on how to maintain the cocoa, farm management, fight diseases in case we get them and other things that the farmers require.” Said, Wilfred Aliganyira – Cocoa Exporter.
The biggest buyers of cocoa in Bundibugyo district included ESCO Uganda Limited, Olam, You Garden, Agro-crop, Vanish and UCCL Brakam. “Cocoa from Bundibugyo is the best cocoa on the world market because of the soils and it has attracted many buyers in Bundibugyo especially here we have about more than 10 companies buying the cocoa.” Exporters buy already fermented cocoa from farmers, process it and then export it. “So what we do of course there are those farmers who may not maintain to dry the cocoa up to seven days or four days because they want to get quick money. We also encourage them to bring the cocoa wet as it is because we have the facilities around where we can dry the cocoa and we have the machines that can dry the cocoa up to the required moisture.”
Cocoa is an International traded commodity and nearly old crop beans produced in Uganda are exported. However, they were worried about the deteriorating cocoa quality due to the competition between the exporters of cocoa and poor methods used in fermenting and drying it. “So because we are many there is a lot of competition and then the farmers have retarded in maintaining the quality. What is happening now is that because people are rushing fighting for cocoa farmers no longer ferment for seven days, a farmer will ferment three days and he sells the cocoa. But at the end of the day, it will affect the market because when it reaches there the quality keeps on deteriorating because farmers no longer ferment and maybe drying and then maybe removing the dirt you can see this cocoa you see that it has some dirt. So that’s the challenge we see as number one.”
To save the situation they invested in drying materials and sensitizing farmers on better farming practices. “So we imported containers of tarpaulins and gave farmers at a fair price. So I should say 95% of the farmers in Bundibugyo have tarpaulins where they can dry the cocoa. And those who can afford the racks have the racks and we have supported some especially those with big gardens and we have given them the racks at their homes where they can dry the cocoa.”
As prices of cocoa kept rising, this threatened food production as many farmers preferred cocoa from any other crop which could cause a shortage in the region. “Because farmers have planted cocoa everywhere, they don’t have land where they can plant food. So they are depending on cocoa money, money that comes from cocoa after selling then they buy food. But if they were having food production somewhere plus an export crop then that would be a little bit okay for the incomes for the farmers.”
