{UAH} Rwanda Coffee at Starbucks

Members,

 

I had an interesting phone conversation with a purchasing rep from Starbucks this morning and he sent me the image shown below. 

 

I asked him why Starbucks is so big on Rwanda coffee as opposed to Uganda coffee and he said very plainly, Rwanda is a much more reliable source with a much more business-friendly environment.  To be more specific, the Rwanda government is extremely proactive in the promotion of their coffee, the government imposes and maintains very strict standards which are acceptable to Starbucks, and they do not have to deal with the challenges of corruption in Rwanda.

 

Let me stress that these are not my words - just what I picked up from the conversation.

 

But that said, Starbucks is indeed buying coffee from Uganda - just not the high priced high quality coffee it gets from Rwanda.  Uganda coffee is blended with coffees from a dozen other countries to make some of its regular Starbucks coffee.

 

So folks, Uganda is obviously missing the boat big time.  Question is, what can we in the Diaspora do about it?

 

 

This is a discussion we need to conduct in advance of, during and after the upcoming Trade and Investment Forum that will be held during the upcoming 26^th Annual Convention of the Ugandan North American Association in San Diego over the Labor Day weekend (www.unaa.org).