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A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand by Andrew Rugasira
JULIAS Mugoha farms three acres of coffee crops in the Kasese Hills, a Robusta bean producing region of Uganda.
Before he sold his coffee to the Good African Coffee Company, he was selling parchment coffee for 1 500 Ugandan shillings ($0.75) per kilogram; now he sells his crops at a rate of 3 700 Ugandan shillings - more than double, because he has implemented crop improvement techniques producing better beans.
The young African diaspora holds the key to unlocking the potential of sub-Saharan Africa - politically, economically and socially. The convergence of five fundamental forces has spawned an ethical imperative, calling on Africa’s diaspora to act.
If ever there was a compelling business model which played to all my senses, a case study involving coffee, Africa, global commerce and social impact would be the one.
B2C
In business speak, B2C means business-to-consumer, which explains the queer look on my face when I recently noticed a coffee machine branded B2C. Upon clarification, I learnt that in the coffee context B2C means bean-to-cup.
What I was yet to discover, however, is that bean-to-cup disguises 99% of the complexity in getting the crème-topped brown stuff into your cup.
The humble Ugandan Robusta coffee bean travels a precarious journey up the value chain.
Before it can arrive on the shelf in UK supermarkets it must first conquer market penetration difficulties, distribution challenges, non-tariff trade barriers, packaging complications, processing hitches – not to mention the technicalities behind shipping, warehousing, domestic transport, centralised procurement, harvesting, growing, planting, fertilising, financing and educating smallhold farmers.
Historically these challenges were real but immaterial, because nobody was exporting retail ready coffee from Uganda; rather, farmers like Julias Mugoha have always sold their beans unprocessed to commodity traders - without capturing any of the profits available higher up the value chain.
This is not an example of post-colonialist malfeasance; rather, it is evidence of the reality facing smallhold farmers and their inability to advance in the absence of access to capital, technology and markets.
A good African story
I was oblivious to all these factors until I read A Good African Story by Andrew Rugasira, founder and CEO of The Good African Coffee Company, a Ugandan success story whose narrative continues to evolve in tandem with the continent-wide macrocosm which it represents.
Good African Coffee truly champions the full coffee value chain described above through its involvement at every stage, from establishing credit cooperatives for growers, educating farmers and processing coffee locally through to negotiating supply contracts with international retailers.
Catching up with Rugasira while in Johannesburg - aptly over a few cups of good coffee - we delved into the labyrinth that is agro-entrepreneurialism in sub-Saharan Africa and the myriad of barriers which had to be broken to just step onto the playing field of retail coffee.
Rugasira embodies all that is good about Africa; he represents the potential of the ‘coffee bean diaspora’. Educated in the UK, he returned to Uganda to build a social enterprise focusing on ‘trade not aid’.
His story highlights the snakes and ladders facing entrepreneurs in Africa, but more importantly it exposes the responsibility and opportunity for Africa’s diaspora.
Every facet of market penetration deserves attention from empowering growers, financing processors, influencing buyers and constantly repeating this feat to ensure stable supply.
However, I will focus on an umbrella theme which I believe is the fulcrum to lever African states up the economic ladder: the role of the best and brightest young Africans living abroad, the coffee bean diaspora.
Same, same but different
The challenges facing Africa are fundamentally the same as they have been for decades. The tools for solving them however, have changed for the better.
Having first-hand exposure to the African diaspora in the US, Asia and Europe, I have observed the calibre and competence of Africa’s far-flung sprogs.
Educated at the finest institutions around the globe, brimming with expertise and experience across all fields, brisling with initiative and purpose, this cadre of the African elite has always existed and generally never returned to their homeland, for lack of equivalent opportunities to what they can find in London, Paris or New York.
There are three clearly discernable characteristics of the coffee bean diaspora: firstly, their impatience, which comes with youth. Secondly, their local knowledge and credibility, which comes from cultural affinity, and lastly their expertise, which comes from foreign education, training and exposure.
So what has changed?
Unfortunately, impatience, credibility and expertise alone have historically been inadequate to catalyse sustainable change in their countries of origin.
But two other game-changing factors have changed: technology and world economies.
Technology is stirring the global pot. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Arab Spring, where despite the evanescence of progress, the impact and influence of communication technology was undeniably the catalyst-in-chief and driver behind force majeure.
The second change, developed country economic stagnation, has oddly been to Africa’s advantage. With growth in developed countries stalled and no end in sight, Africa presents a glowing lantern of opportunity investors are hypnotically drawn to.
Wake up and smell the coffee
The dovetailing of Africa’s rising economic attractiveness and developed country economic doldrums presents a unique opportunity for the African diaspora to capitalise on.
With the reversal of fortunes in where the axis of opportunity lies, the coffee bean diaspora can harness these five factors to drive Pan-African change.
The role of the coffee bean diaspora is similar in many ways to coffee itself - small in number yet pungent in flavour, it has the power to influence and impact orders of magnitude above its quantitative stature.
Incentives are now aligned for this revolution to erupt; the long-dormant ethical imperative to act lies dormant no more.
Africa’s history presents few bright spots, but that is changing fast – and the coffee bean diaspora have it in their power to catalyse the continent’s pivot across industry, society and politics alike.
It is high time for this next generation of African leaders to wake up and smell the coffee.
- Fin24
*Jarred Myers is a resources strategist and can be followed on Twitter on @JarredMyers. Opinions expressed are his own.
JULIAS Mugoha farms three acres of coffee crops in the Kasese Hills, a Robusta bean producing region of Uganda.
Before he sold his coffee to the Good African Coffee Company, he was selling parchment coffee for 1 500 Ugandan shillings ($0.75) per kilogram; now he sells his crops at a rate of 3 700 Ugandan shillings - more than double, because he has implemented crop improvement techniques producing better beans.
The young African diaspora holds the key to unlocking the potential of sub-Saharan Africa - politically, economically and socially. The convergence of five fundamental forces has spawned an ethical imperative, calling on Africa’s diaspora to act.
If ever there was a compelling business model which played to all my senses, a case study involving coffee, Africa, global commerce and social impact would be the one.
B2C
In business speak, B2C means business-to-consumer, which explains the queer look on my face when I recently noticed a coffee machine branded B2C. Upon clarification, I learnt that in the coffee context B2C means bean-to-cup.
What I was yet to discover, however, is that bean-to-cup disguises 99% of the complexity in getting the crème-topped brown stuff into your cup.
The humble Ugandan Robusta coffee bean travels a precarious journey up the value chain.
Before it can arrive on the shelf in UK supermarkets it must first conquer market penetration difficulties, distribution challenges, non-tariff trade barriers, packaging complications, processing hitches – not to mention the technicalities behind shipping, warehousing, domestic transport, centralised procurement, harvesting, growing, planting, fertilising, financing and educating smallhold farmers.
Historically these challenges were real but immaterial, because nobody was exporting retail ready coffee from Uganda; rather, farmers like Julias Mugoha have always sold their beans unprocessed to commodity traders - without capturing any of the profits available higher up the value chain.
This is not an example of post-colonialist malfeasance; rather, it is evidence of the reality facing smallhold farmers and their inability to advance in the absence of access to capital, technology and markets.
A good African story
I was oblivious to all these factors until I read A Good African Story by Andrew Rugasira, founder and CEO of The Good African Coffee Company, a Ugandan success story whose narrative continues to evolve in tandem with the continent-wide macrocosm which it represents.
Good African Coffee truly champions the full coffee value chain described above through its involvement at every stage, from establishing credit cooperatives for growers, educating farmers and processing coffee locally through to negotiating supply contracts with international retailers.
Catching up with Rugasira while in Johannesburg - aptly over a few cups of good coffee - we delved into the labyrinth that is agro-entrepreneurialism in sub-Saharan Africa and the myriad of barriers which had to be broken to just step onto the playing field of retail coffee.
Rugasira embodies all that is good about Africa; he represents the potential of the ‘coffee bean diaspora’. Educated in the UK, he returned to Uganda to build a social enterprise focusing on ‘trade not aid’.
His story highlights the snakes and ladders facing entrepreneurs in Africa, but more importantly it exposes the responsibility and opportunity for Africa’s diaspora.
Every facet of market penetration deserves attention from empowering growers, financing processors, influencing buyers and constantly repeating this feat to ensure stable supply.
However, I will focus on an umbrella theme which I believe is the fulcrum to lever African states up the economic ladder: the role of the best and brightest young Africans living abroad, the coffee bean diaspora.
Same, same but different
The challenges facing Africa are fundamentally the same as they have been for decades. The tools for solving them however, have changed for the better.
Having first-hand exposure to the African diaspora in the US, Asia and Europe, I have observed the calibre and competence of Africa’s far-flung sprogs.
Educated at the finest institutions around the globe, brimming with expertise and experience across all fields, brisling with initiative and purpose, this cadre of the African elite has always existed and generally never returned to their homeland, for lack of equivalent opportunities to what they can find in London, Paris or New York.
There are three clearly discernable characteristics of the coffee bean diaspora: firstly, their impatience, which comes with youth. Secondly, their local knowledge and credibility, which comes from cultural affinity, and lastly their expertise, which comes from foreign education, training and exposure.
So what has changed?
Unfortunately, impatience, credibility and expertise alone have historically been inadequate to catalyse sustainable change in their countries of origin.
But two other game-changing factors have changed: technology and world economies.
Technology is stirring the global pot. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Arab Spring, where despite the evanescence of progress, the impact and influence of communication technology was undeniably the catalyst-in-chief and driver behind force majeure.
The second change, developed country economic stagnation, has oddly been to Africa’s advantage. With growth in developed countries stalled and no end in sight, Africa presents a glowing lantern of opportunity investors are hypnotically drawn to.
Wake up and smell the coffee
The dovetailing of Africa’s rising economic attractiveness and developed country economic doldrums presents a unique opportunity for the African diaspora to capitalise on.
With the reversal of fortunes in where the axis of opportunity lies, the coffee bean diaspora can harness these five factors to drive Pan-African change.
The role of the coffee bean diaspora is similar in many ways to coffee itself - small in number yet pungent in flavour, it has the power to influence and impact orders of magnitude above its quantitative stature.
Incentives are now aligned for this revolution to erupt; the long-dormant ethical imperative to act lies dormant no more.
Africa’s history presents few bright spots, but that is changing fast – and the coffee bean diaspora have it in their power to catalyse the continent’s pivot across industry, society and politics alike.
It is high time for this next generation of African leaders to wake up and smell the coffee.
- Fin24
*Jarred Myers is a resources strategist and can be followed on Twitter on @JarredMyers. Opinions expressed are his own.
