A growing sense of optimism is sweeping through Nakaseke District and the greater Luwero Region as coffee farmers rally behind the Nonda Coffee Value Park, a landmark value-addition project expected to reshape Uganda’s coffee industry.
During a community engagement convened by the Nonda Kitawuluzi Initiative at the end of July, farmers explored how better production practices, quality improvement, value addition, and direct market access will position them to benefit from the transformative investment ahead of its groundbreaking in October.
The mobilisation comes on the heels of H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s endorsement of the Nonda Coffee Value Park and his commitment of Government support for the project.
With groundbreaking scheduled for October 2026 in Butalangu Town Council, Nakaseke District, Nonda Commodities has stepped up farmer mobilisation across its catchment area to ensure farming communities are organised, trained, and ready to participate in Uganda’s value-addition agenda from the outset.
Rather than delivering speeches, the Nonda Kitawuluzi team listened first as Farmers openly shared the realities they face every season: fluctuating farm-gate prices, expensive farm inputs, changing weather patterns, limited access to quality seedlings, uncertainty about international quality standards, and years of selling coffee at prices that rarely reflected its true value.
The discussions then shifted to practical solutions, demonstrating how improved farming practices, organised aggregation, and value addition can significantly increase farmer incomes.
“For years, farmers have carried the greatest burden in the coffee value chain while earning the smallest share. The Value-at-Source model is designed to change that by ensuring more value remains in Uganda and more income reaches the farmer,” Mr Augustine Kisitu, the Project Cordinatoor noted.
Throughout the engagement, farmers explored three opportunities that underpin the Nonda model.
Producing quality coffee. Farmers received practical guidance on selective harvesting, proper drying techniques, clean storage, and quality grading—simple but critical practices that can qualify coffee for premium export markets. In Nakaseke, where Robusta coffee dominates, these improvements can enable farmers to access premium prices linked to higher quality grades.
Adding value at source. Instead of exporting raw green coffee, Uganda has an opportunity to process coffee into roasted coffee, instant coffee, specialty blends, coffee capsules, ground coffee, and ready-to-drink beverages. Processing within Uganda keeps more wealth in the country, creates skilled jobs, and increases the share of value earned by farmers and local businesses.
Connecting directly to markets. Through Nonda’s structured Value-at-Source supply chain, coffee will move from Bubondo farmer clusters to Kitawuluzi Centres for aggregation and grading, through E’Byaggi Centres for advanced quality control, and finally to the Nonda Coffee Value Park for processing and export to more than 60 international markets. The model promotes transparency, rewards quality, and reduces dependence on multiple layers of intermediaries.
The Nakaseke engagement forms part of a much larger mobilisation effort. Across 13 districts, Nonda Commodities is establishing 183 Kitawuluzi Centres and 939 Bubondo farmer clusters, targeting more than 200,000 coffee households. To date, more than 46,000 farmers have already been directly engaged under the initiative.
At the centre of this transformation is the planned 100-acre Nonda Coffee Value Park in Butalangu Town Council. Once operational, the facility is expected to process 42,000 metric tonnes of green coffee annually, produce 7,200 metric tonnes of instant coffee, manufacture a range of premium coffee products, and create approximately 4,085 direct jobs. Beyond employment, the project is expected to stimulate rural industrialisation, strengthen Uganda’s export earnings, and demonstrate the economic potential of value addition at source.
Many farmers attending the session noted that they had participated in agricultural programmes before but appreciated the practical nature of the engagement. Instead of broad promises, they were presented with a clear implementation roadmap, physical infrastructure under development, organised buying centres, transparent quality standards, and a defined timeline leading to the park’s construction.
By the close of the engagement, farmers reaffirmed their commitment to improving coffee quality and partnering with Nonda Commodities as commercial participants in Uganda’s evolving coffee economy.
The mobilisation follows a simple but powerful principle: Organise. Train. Produce. Aggregate. Process. Market.
As Uganda accelerates its industrialisation agenda through value addition, the Nonda Kitawuluzi Initiative is positioning farmers not merely as producers of raw coffee, but as central partners in building a modern, globally competitive coffee industry.
When construction of the Nonda Coffee Value Park begins in October 2026, the farmers attending engagements like the one in Nakaseke will not simply be watching history unfold. They will form the foundation of the supply chain—organised, trained, traceable, and ready to supply high-quality coffee to a world-class processing facility in their own district.
