KALUNGU .
Government and key partners in the coffee supply and value chain have conducted the first ever demonstration to check the effectiveness of the coffee digistalised traceability system which responds to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) .
Held at Lusango Coffee farmers Cooperative Society factory in Kalungu District on May 22,2025 , the exercise enabled stakeholders including individual farmers to see how coffee can been tracked and verified thorough out its supply and value chain .
Led by a team from Café Africa , stakeholders were showed how to gather, store, and use data on the origin, production, and shipment of coffee , including its geolocation, production date, and evidence of compliance with relevant laws that bar growing of coffee on formerly forested land .
Café Africa is the an organisation that was awarded a contract to coordinate the implementation of the EUDR and EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) Compliance Action Plan on behalf of the EUDR/CS3D Taskforce.
Mr Rauben Keimusya , the assistant commissioner Coffee Production in the Ministry of Agriculture ,who was the chief guest at the function ,said the demonstration proved that the digitalised coffee traceability system is functional and credible .
“This is something we have longed for . I am excited to see that an individual coffee farmer in Kalungu here or elsewhere who is registered can be traced using technology .We can now know where exactly he grows the coffee , how much he produced and took to the factory and its quality ,”he said
However , he arrayed fears of farmers that the digistalised is targeting them to pay taxes as it has been alleged before , emphasizing that it is a requirement of EU to trace the origin of coffee which enters their market .
On December ,5 2022, the EU approved the EUDR policy which requires that coffee, cocoa and other agricultural commodities exported to the EU market are sourced from land that was not deforested after 31 December 2020.
“Europe is an important destination for our coffee in terms of volumes and we cannot ignore their standards if we want to grow our economy and well-being of individual farmers .” Mr Keimusya added
Ms Judith Muvara, the advocacy and communications officer at Café Africa;-the coordination unit of the taskforce to enforce EU regulations ,said the digital tools being tested are already used by coffee exporters like Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd .
“We are embracing digital tools whose effectiveness has already been appreciated by some people in the coffee supply chain in Uganda . We appeal to the farmers who have not yet registered ,to do so and we all push in the same direction for the good of our sector ,” she said
She when the ongoing registration of coffee farmers is completed , the next step will be setting up a data warehouse .
Government is currently intensifying efforts to register all coffee farmers to comply with the EU deforestation regulation policy which take effect on January 1,2026. Available records indicate that at least 1.25m coffee farmers are already captured in government’s data base .