Slow Food Uganda Coffee Festival 2015 kicks off tomorrow

 A festival to promote good, clean and fair coffee and support small-scale Ugandan producers

Slow Food Uganda Coffee Festival will be held from October 28 to 29, 2015 in Zirobwe (Luwero district). The event is the result of a collaboration between the Luwero Robusta Coffee Slow Food Presidium, Slow Food Uganda and other partners, such as the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA).

The theme of this first edition is “Uganda Coffee: Our Culture, Our Heritage, Our Economy.” The festival aims to celebrate Uganda’s native varieties and coffee culture, raising awareness among the local population about the benefits of drinking good, clean and fair coffee.

Twenty-seven small-scale coffee farmers from nine Terra Madre food communities, in both Arabica- and Robusta-producing areas, and representatives from the Luwero Robusta Coffee Presidium will participate in the event, along with coffee roasters and members of the Slow Food network in Uganda.

Leading local authorities, the UCDA, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), NGOs representatives, researchers from various agricultural institutions and stakeholders from public and private sectors are also expected to attend the event.

The festival program includes a series of open talks and workshops on different issues, including coffee agronomy, cooperative development, hygiene practices and the role played by coffee in Uganda from a historical, sociocultural point of view.

Several coffee shop owners will have a stand located in the Main Pavilion of the fair. Among them, there will be the Endiro Coffee, Ngabi Coffee Works, 1000 Cups Coffee House from Kampala and ECO Shamba CAFÉ from Mbale, which embraced the Slow Food philosophy since the 2012 Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre edition, in which Saleh Naminya, the owner, participated.

“Today Uganda has over 1.3 million family coffee farms, providing livelihoods to 5.5 million Ugandans. Thanks to these millions of family farmers, Uganda has emerged as Africa’s top Robusta coffee producer and the second-largest coffee producer in Africa after Ethiopia,” states Edie Mukiibi, Vice President of Slow Food International. “Despite coffee’s social, cultural, economic and political significance, Ugandan coffee producers remain the poorest and most exploited players along the value chain, facing many challenges. Sharing information and knowledge among different stakeholders is the first step to empower producers and defend local coffee biodiversity. In order to understand the importance of producing high-quality coffee for local consumption and conquer the challenges of the coffee sector, an open and participatory dialogue is needed between all small-scale players in the country,” concludes Mukiibi.

The Social Pavilion, an area of the festival, will be dedicated to art, live music, educational and fun activities for both adults and children. An exhibition will be set up to showcase various coffee varieties, technologies and mechanisms used by artisans and innovative producers, roasters and brewers.

For further information, please contact the Slow Food International Press Office:

Paola Nano, +39 329 8321285 [email protected]

Slow Food involves over a million of people dedicated to and passionate about good, clean and fair food. This includes chefs, youth, activists, farmers, fishers, experts and academics in over 158 countries; a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide (known as convivia), contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize; and over 2,500 Terra Madre food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.