From farm to cup: Digitalizing East African coffee
On small farms across East Africa, the International Trade Centre (ITC) is working with coffee growers to incorporate digital technology at every step of their business. Our work with coffee shows the full breadth of our work under the Digital Moonshot. From improving traceability to upgrading their marketing, these farmers are reaching new international markets, transforming their businesses and their communities.
Many of the businesses that ITC works with sell specialty, single-origin coffees. Their selling point is that the beans are grown in just one area, giving the coffee a unique profile – unlike larger companies that blend beans from across the world to make a standardized product.
Tracing beans from trees to cups
To prove that their coffees are in fact single origin, the growers need to trace their production all the way
back to the trees. Traceability is also becoming more important to comply with regulations around human rights, climate change and deforestation. Consumers increasingly want to know how their coffee is produced, as governments make traceability a requirement.
To sell to large companies like Nestle or Starbucks, even small businesses must prove where the coffee came from – down to the individual farmer.
‘That puts a lot of pressure on these small businesses to provide the data,’ said ITC e-commerce expert Annabel Sykes. ‘If they don’t provide the data, they can be excluded from the supply chain.’
In Rwanda, the ITC SheTrades Initiative worked with 1,000 women to use the Farmer Connect blockchain technology at the OLAM AtSource system to trace their beans. The results gave a lot of data about the coffee, but required a lot of work from the women to capture the data. That experience is now guiding ITC efforts to work with more small coffee businesses on traceability.
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Agnes Mukamushinja and Divine Mutuyimana, two owners of coffee processors in Rwanda, have tapped into wider markets and brought about positive impact on their communities through two digital traceability solutions.
Learning to tell the coffee story
Many of the coffee growers have unique stories – from the location of the farms, to the way they wash their beans, or the steps they take to protect the environment.
In Uganda, ITC worked with Mountain Harvest to change their operations. The business added solar panels to cut energy costs, and started composting waste coffee pulp. Those changes then form a powerful narrative that can inspire buyers.
Working with ITC experts, that story was packaged into detailed brochures and promoted online, through an informational website and social media.
With businesses like Gorilla Highlands Coffee in Uganda, updated branding created with the MARKUP project gave a new image that better spoke to their commitment to the nearby gorillas and to the surrounding communities.
The UK Trade Partnerships programme at ITC later facilitated a trip for British buyers to visit Ugandan producers, having a professional website and social media helped capture their attention.
‘Buyers feel more confident about doing business with a CEO who can clearly explain what makes their products unique. Having professional marketing materials reinforces that sense of trust,’ said Abdelbasset Boulelouah, an ITC marketing expert.
ITC also brings coffee producers to major trade fairs, one of the ways to connect them with small roasters and potential investors..
‘Preparing ahead of time, not only are their online channels where they need to be, but they’re posting about what’s going on and what they’re up to,’ said Sykes. ‘It’s a digital wraparound for their physical presence at these events.’
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Five coffee companies from Papua New Guinea, as well as the Coffee Industry Corporation, went to the World of Coffee fair in Copenhagen, Denmark from 27-29 June 2024.
