Muhangi Hills Coffee by Dr Ian Clarke: Producing High Quality Robusta in Uganda

Dr Ian Clarke, Founder of Muhangi Hills Coffee (Clarke Group), explains what was his goal getting into the coffee sector in Uganda.

“My interest in coffee is actually to see Uganda produce higher quality coffee. And then not only get the volume, but get better income from farmers. We are the largest coffee exporter in Africa, bigger than Ethiopia. Ethiopia produces more coffee, but they drink their own coffee. So, they export less than we do. Ethiopian coffee is high end as well. But Uganda is what they call “the home of Robusta.” There are two grades of coffee: Robusta and Arabica. Coffee drinkers like to drink Arabica. But in fact, if you are in Italy, and in many other countries now, if you put a bit of Robusta into it, you get a much higher caffeine hit. I have just packaged some nice, pure Robusta and it grades as five stars in terms of caffeine. It is one that if you are not careful with it, it will blow your head off. But, in terms of what I want to do in Uganda as “the home of Robusta” is to get them producing more good quality Robusta, that then gets blended in for high end coffee and we will get better prices for it. So to me the economic prospects of Uganda are not bad at the present time”, says Dr Ian Clarke.

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