Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) wants Shs.35Bn for the installation of a coffee traceability system.

Janet Okori-Moe the Chairperson of the parliament’s Agriculture Committee, has explained that UCDA is seeking to establish a national traceability system, that will ensure compliance among farmers with regulations by European Union, that bars the production of agriculture products like coffee from deforested areas.

According to Okori the traceability system will register coffee value chain actors like (farmers, nursery operators, processors, roasters and exporters), making this be one of the key regulations of the European Union for coffee exportation.

She added that, “UCDA requires Shs.35Bn for establishment of this system but no funds were provided in the budget for 2024/24,”

However, Dickson Kateshumbwa the Sheema Municipality member of parliament, reacted to the request asking, “When you say that UCDA requires Shs35Bn to establish a traceability system, is this made on Mars, what kind of system is this, Shs35Bn? Have you interrogated them to tell you, have you benchmarked?”

Besides the traceability system funding, the authority is also seeking for additional Shs13.952Bn to fund some other unfunded critical issues including; Shs1.566Bn to promote Uganda’s coffee in China, Shs1.66Bn to promote Uganda’s coffee in Middle East and Maghreb, while another Shs1.2Bn is required to construct a coffee hub in Kyambogo.

Kateshumbwa yet again raised queries on this proposal saying, “Then you look at establishing a coffee hub in Kyambogo at Shs1.2Bn to promote people to drink coffee really? You need to help us in some of these things, Shs1.5Bn for promotion of coffee in China. There is already a market of coffee in China that we aren’t fulfilling. We need to interrogate some of these figures, otherwise, it becomes hard for us to rationalize some of these figures.”

As the authority seeks for more funds to run its duties, it should be noted that last week president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni asked the Minister for Science, Technology, and Innovation Dr. Monica Musenero, to avail the record of accounts and all accountability documents for an internal Audit, in regards to the funds disbursed towards Coffee Value Chain.

This letter from the president came at a time when there was a scuffle on X formerly twitter, between Robert Kabushenga a coffee farmer and Nelson Tugume the head of Coffee Investment Consortium Uganda (CICU) regarding the $20 million, which was disbursed to Tugume Nelson, with the money meant to finance the coffee export trade.