Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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SIPI FALLS O n behalf of her 25-member farmer association, Janet received the $500 check, a prize awarded to the group for its advancement in specialty coffee. Several miles from the celebration sits her five-acre coffee farm, with its 5,000 shaded trees and year-round stream. The farm—and its recent output—has enabled Janet to provide col- lege educations for her three oldest children, as well as food, pri- mary-school fees and a new home for her youngest three children. Janet's story mirrors the struggle of her fellow coffee farmers in the Kapchorwa District of Uganda. The physical setting in the Mount Elgon region on the border of Uganda and Kenya is breathtaking, with the picturesque Sipi Falls cascading through imposing granite formations. Several elements make this region the most agriculturally productive land in Uganda. Due to the high elevation (approximately 4,500 to 8,200 feet), volcanic soil and abundant rainfall, Kapchorwa District and its adjacent districts, Kween and Bukwo, are ideally suited for the production of high-quality Arabica coffee. The beans produced from the slopes of the Elgon mountain range have traditionally been referred to as Bugisu coffee, a reference to the region's former name. Yet despite the complex and dis- tinctive taste of the Mount Elgon product, the coffees have only in the past several years begun to catch the eye of the larger specialty coffee world. There are a number of reasons for the relative obscurity of these Arabicas. Uganda is the second-largest coffee producer in East Africa (second only to Ethiopia), but 80 percent of what it produces is the robusta variety. Domestic consumption has tradi- tionally been low (about 5 percent). But with the global specialty coffee market blooming, Uganda's Arabica exports have steadily increased to the point where its numbers are beginning to rival its Kenyan and Tanzanian neighbors. The catalyst for a move toward better quality coffee among Janet and her Kapchorwa neighbors was the August 2009 arrival of a team of Michigan State University coffee agronomy special- ists including Dan Clay, Anne Ottaway and Genevieve Kappler. continued on page 44 Fresh Cup Magazine 43 BUTFORTHESKY.COM