Participants attending the PRM training
The Agribusiness Development Centre (ADC) in partnership with DFCU Limited and Rabo Foundation has conducted a three-day training program to teach coffee and cocoa growers about Price Risk Management (PRM).
The 3-day training that commenced on February 15, 2023 is critical for the development of Uganda’s coffee and cocoa sectors as price fluctuations in the global market can have a big impact on farmers’ incomes.
According to Josephine Mukumbya, the Executive Director at ADC, the training is part of the Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises (ECOS) project that is being implemented in partnership with GOPA Worldwide Consultants.
“We are well aligned to ensure SMEs are well equipped with skills to unlock markets and more potential. Working with GOPA has given us an opportunity to scale up operations this year for PRM,” she said, adding that they intend to have 3 cohorts in the first quarter.
“We have already invited about 100 enterprises with hope to have gone through the cycle for both the beginner’s course which is happening now and the advanced course happening later on this year. What we have seen in the past happening from this PRM training is much smaller youth led enterprise being able to negotiate good terms to take their coffee from the local market to international. They are able to get better prices they haven’t got prices, trade more extensively and access finance,” she added.
Jimmy Byaruhanga, the team leader at ECOS (Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small and medium enterprises in Uganda) says that their role is to assist businesses with innovation and digitalization, access to finance, quality management, and market development, among others.
“This is how we came to partner with ADC because they are already working with the agribusiness sector and supporting SMEs with very high-level interventions such as Price Risk Management training and the business acceleration program,” Byaruhanga said.
He added: “As ECOS, we intend to support SMEs to get into regional and international markets and that is why we are partnering with Uganda Export Promotion Board and Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) for standards.”
Charles Wetaka, the Managing Directir at Nasaga Investments (U) Ltd, a beneficiary of the PRM says farmers feared exporting coffee to the international market yet they weren’t benefiting from local trading.
He adds that they had challenges with procuring coffee, contract negotiations with international coffee pricing terms but they now able to understand international buyers’ interests and make positions that benefit both the seller and the buyer.
“We were selling bigger volumes on local market but with little profits but after the training we focused on international markets and we are now selling small volumes with high profits,” he says.
ADC is an entity founded in 2018 by DFCU and the Rabo Foundation to promote the capacity building of agricultural businesses.
This is one of the trainings that ADC provides, particularly for the export crops of coffee and cocoa, where there’s a lot of risk faced by businesses that export or trade locally but are unsure how to manage price risk, among other risks.
The Agribusiness Development Centre’s primary goal is to train and empower Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs), SMEs, SACCOs, and SMEs.
The training program organized by the ADC in Uganda is a crucial step towards empowering coffee and cocoa growers to manage price risk effectively.
“By providing these valuable insights and practical exercises, the training will enable farmers to take control of their income and build more resilient businesses. This is a vital step towards ensuring the long-term growth and sustainability of Uganda’s coffee and cocoa industries,” ADC’s Josephine Mukumbya, says.
