ICO’s Chief Economist Visits Uganda

ICO’s Chief Economist, Mr Denis Seudieu, visited Uganda in November 2014 on the occasion of the second African Coffee Symposium, the 54th Annual General Assembly of the Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO), and the closing workshop for a capacity-building project in African coffee-producing countries.

Second African Coffee Symposium and 54th General Assembly of the InterAfrican Coffee Organization
The second African Coffee Symposium and the 54th Annual General Assembly of the Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO) took place in Kampala, Uganda, from 17 to 21 November 2014 on the theme of ‘Unlocking the potential of the African Coffee Industry”. The Opening Ceremony was chaired by HE Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister of Republic of Uganda, accompanied by HE Mr Tress Bucyanayandi, Minister of Agriculture, Animal industry and Fisheries, and HE Mrs Ruth Nankabirwa, State Minister for Fisheries.

Mrs Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union provided a keynote speech. Mr Henry Ngabirano, Managing Director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and the Secretary-General of IACO, Mr Frederick Kawuma, opened the proceedings.
ICO’s Chief Economist, Mr Denis Seudieu, delivered a message on behalf of the Executive Director, Mr Roberio Silva, praising the contribution of IACO to the work of the ICO, inviting the Secretary-General to continue the cooperation of the two organisations in addressing emerging issues facing the coffee sector such as climate change and price volatility. He also invited the African Member countries to improve their compliance with statistics on coffee.

During the symposium, Mr Seudieu made a presentation on the growing share of Robusta Coffee in the global market. The second African Coffee Symposium analysed challenges facing the sector and the need for government support through public-private partnerships to reverse the negative trend of the coffee sector in Africa. As a result of its deliberations, the 54th Annual General Assembly of IACO released the Kampala declaration (click here to read more about it on the IACO website).

The 55th Annual General Assembly and the 3rd African Coffee Symposium will take place in Angola in November 2015. IACO has 25 Member states, representing 11.4% of world coffee production.



Closing Workshop of ICO/CFC/EU Capacity-Building Project in African Coffee-Producing Countries
During his visit to Uganda, Mr Seudieu also participated in the closing workshop of an ICO-sponsored project funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and the European Union in Kampala on 21 November 2014. The five-year project, titled “Building capacity in coffee certification and verification for specialty coffee farmers in AFCA countries,” aims to improve the skills of farmers to meet certification and verification standards in nine African coffee producing countries— Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Major achievements of the project include the training of 7,000 farmers and capacity building for professional certifiers and verifiers within national coffee institutions. The CFC and the European Union were represented by Mrs Eva Teeken and Mr Patrick Senyange respectively. The workshop was chaired by the Secretary General of the Inter-African Coffee Organisation, Mr Fred Kawuma. The full completion report of the project is available upon request at library@ico.org.