What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), has prioritised the registration of coffee value chain actors so as to enable traceability ahead of the upcoming ban by the European Union (EU) on the export of coffee harvested from deforested areas.

The move comes at a time when the EU, which provides a market for 60 percent of Uganda’s coffee exports, will effectively ban buying coffee from deforested areas.

In February, UCDA indicated that the EU Deforestation Regulation 2023 compliance required them to collect detailed information, especially on production and locations to determine the level of risk of exported coffee to the environment.

The regulation requires that coffee planted after December 2020 must prove that no deforestation took place before it was planted, which seeks to promote environmental protection.

While launching the exercise in Kampala, Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze, said fortunately, the newly enacted National Coffee Act, 2021 had already provided for the establishment of a national register for coffee value chain actors, noting that “this partly answers the compliance requirement of registration of coffee value chain actors an essential precursor to the creation of a National Traceability System”.

• Read More