Editor’s note: Dorothy Nakaweesi is a reporter for the Daily Monitor in Kampala, Uganda. She recently worked at The Durango Herald for three weeks as part of a program with the International Center for Journalists. At the Daily Monitor, she covers the coffee industry extensively, particularly the export side of it.
By Dorothy Nakaweesi
Special to the Herald
To Joe Lloyd, starting this business was mostly about passion for coffee and people. Together with his wife, he brought it to fruition nine years ago.
Durango Joe’s started with one coffee shop and since has expanded to eight. There are plans to open more outlets sometime this year and also to spread the business to South America.
“Love for coffee and love for people go hand in hand because we hang out with people,” Lloyd said in an interview. “My first shop was at College Drive, and I later opened up other outlets in Durango and New Mexico.”
A National Coffee Association study released in March showed that overall coffee consumption in the United States jumped by 5 percent in the last year. Eighty-three percent of U.S. adults now drink coffee, and 63 percent drink it daily, the study showed.
Durango Joe’s has done its part to contribute to this growth. It currently serves more than 3,500 cups of coffee daily from its four Colorado outlets. It other four shops are in the tri-cities area surrounding Farmington.
Durango Joe’s employs a total of 92 people in all the outlets. About 30 percent are full-timers while the rest work on a contract basis.
Lloyd says his business is successful because they believe that all people are important. That’s why they make it a priority to go out of their way to better each person’s day.
Imports
Lloyd gets the coffee from South America and Africa – mainly from Costa Rica, Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala.
“We mainly work with coffee from higher elevations (3,000 feet or higher), and a lot of it is organic, which is a premium that is required,” he said.
Many businesses start and look forward to expanding into big conglomerates, but Lloyd says his will remain a retail business.
Sticking to retail
“Roasting and retailing coffee are two separate businesses with completely separate strategies, yet they both need the utmost attention, which I could not do,” Lloyd said. “That’s why we have remained in retail but contract another company that does the roasting for us and then use our brand.”
Durango Joe’s partners with Dillanos Coffee Roasters, which links it to the respective farmers in the producing countries.
“Our roasters work with sustainable harvest, and we negotiate the prices and we pay high prices,” Lloyd said. “We don’t work with more brokers and also have a relationship with the farmers. The entire value chain is followed in a fair manner.”
Recession’s stresses
Lloyd says the business was hit by the economic recession. It worked hard to sustain customers who were questioning how to spend the little they earn. Durango Joe’s became frugal, as well.
“The last 18 months, the business has been OK, but we have not changed our strategy and this has helped us to work better,” Lloyd said.
“We are growing as the economy allows us to grow; we are looking to open up another outlet in Farmington later this year. We may go further south at some point,” he said.
$500M coffee industry a growing driver of Uganda economy
Uganda is considered one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, historically driven by agricultural exports – coffee being the country’s export earner.
Because of this, the agriculture sector remains the main engine that drives Uganda’s economy, employing about 69.4 percent of the working population.
Coffee, as a commodity, has continued to play a leading role in the economy of Uganda, contributing between 20 to 30 percent of the foreign-exchange earnings as a $500 million industry.
The total value of coffee exports for 2010-11 was $449 million, a large increase over earlier years, said Henry Ngabirano, managing director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
The socioeconomic footprint of coffee remains quite high, with almost 1.3 million households involved.
There are two main types of coffee grown in Uganda: Robusta (85 percent) and Arabica (15 percent).
Uganda’s Robusta coffee is famous throughout the world for its uniqueness and is being used as a benchmark for coffee from other countries.
Globally, Uganda ranks sixth among the top producers of Robusta. In Africa, Uganda is the second-leading producer after Ethiopia.
As the traditional home for Robusta and highly sought-after Arabica, Uganda provides a perfect environment with good soils and weather giving it an outstanding cup profile sought by the world’s coffee lovers.
Coffee is mostly grown in mixed farms, where it is intermingled with food crops such as plantains and beans to ensure food security.
It is grown among shade trees that results in sustainable coffee production while ensuring a social, economic and suitable environment that requires a minimal use of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides.
Coffee is a perennial crop in Uganda, but there are two main harvest seasons: March to June and September to November.
Being the country’s leading export, the consumption is minimal, rated at about 2 percent. Lately, however, there are signs of growing consumption, judging from the coffee shops and baristas investing in roasting and cupping. Those include Café Pap, Good African Coffee, 1000 Cups Coffee House, Café Ballet, Ban Café and Java Café.
Uganda’s coffee sector is being fully liberalized and offers many opportunities for interested investors.
