General Description
Relationship
Agreement and Value created
Safeguards
Mission March 2010

Having read and appreciated what NUCAFE has been doing for years, Caffè River got in touch with them in 2008 to understand the best approach to support their efforts and create a vertical integration. On 22/01/2009 the two exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding where their agreed on mutual intents.



It was, however, too late to organise the import of any coffee. Farmers, always underpressure due to their financial needs, had already sold their harvest to middlemen. It was therefore decided to organise in advance a multiple purchase for the following year. In the meantime, NUCAFE took care to make farmers aware and encourage them to exploit such an opportunity, in order to prevent sales to middlemen once again.
However, this was not enough. Instead, it was believed that it was critical to meet face to face with the farmers, to obtain their trust in the project and for Caffè River to better understand the issues they were living with. With this purpose in mind, a field trip for Caffè River together with NUCAFE, was arranged.

Between 20th and 28th March 2010, Caffè River and NUCAFE together met hundreds of farmers and farmers' representatives in many areas in the centre and south of the country: Nsangi, Bunjakko, Bushenyi, Masaka, Kibinge, Lwamagwa. Everywhere, people were very interested in the received proposal, but above all in the challenge they were offered - to produce quality coffee in exchange for rightful assurances and fair remuneration.



Meanwhile, Caffè River and NUCAFE tried to exploit any opportunity to analyse the existing issues and understand what answers were needed to make the project feasible. Back again in Kampala, a Framework Agreement was formed, bringing together all the experiences, analyses and proposals. It was agreed on 27 March 2010 between Caffè River and NUCAFE and it has guaranteed the sale of high quality robusta coffee between July 2010 and February 2011.