Specialty Coffee
The Regional Opportunity
Coffee significantly contributes to the Gross Domestic Product of every country in the East Africa Community and in many others in the East and Southern Africa region. An important staple cash crop, coffee contributes to the livelihoods and food security of over 27 million Eastern African smallholder producers in remote rural areas. With access to the income generated by coffee, smallholder producers can better feed their families, educate their children and provide better health care to their families. However, the coffee value chain in the region has not yet rewarded smallholder coffee growers for producing high quality coffee that could gain a higher price on international markets and therefore bigger returns to producers. To capture more value upstream, coffee farmers must increase the quantities and quality of their coffees and become more integrated into the coffee value chain.
COMPETE’s Strategic Approach
COMPETE works closely with the coffee industry in the region and the international buyers of specialty coffee to support efforts to increase the volumes, quality and value of East African coffee. Working with regional and international partners, COMPETE has helped to re-engineer the way revenues are shared from producer to consumer along the value chain. COMPETE is working to build on the growing demand for increased transparency and traceability from coffee consumers.
COMPETE has supported the private sector through partnership fund grants to the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) helping to transform this regional trade association into a viable advocate for the specialty coffee industry. COMPETE provides direct technical assistance and capacity building support to EAFCA and worked with the board and secretariat to develop a new five-year institutional strategy. COMPETE is currently working with the Executive Director and technical staff to improve EAFCA’s product and service delivery in the key strategic areas of quality (primarily the expansion of the Taste of Harvest) and Market Information Systems. Additionally, through a subcontract with the Specialty Coffee Association of America and their education arm, the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), COMPETE is training and certifying “Q” system cuppers and graders; the Q system is an international standard for scoring coffee quality. These efforts are promoting a standard quality measurement system within the region that levels the playing field for East Africa’s producers and increases transparency and traceability for the industry.