President Yoweri Museveni addressing delegates and participants at the ongoing African Coffee Summit at Sepeke Resort Munyonyo
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tuesday officially opened the second G-25 African Coffee Summit at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, with a call for African countries to embrace value addition.
He said coffee beverage is quite useful as a stimulant that is friendly to the human body.
“Especially people in cold countries, need this stimulant. It is the richer people, that can afford to buy coffee. People with less incomes, tend to drink tea ─ another beverage,” Museveni told delegates and participants from the 25 African coffee producing countries.
Museveni said he has been encouraging Ugandans to embrace coffee farming because the global demand is increasing.
“Some years ago, the global demand of coffee was 118million bags of 60kgs each. The global demand is now 160million bags of 60kgs each. Why? Apparently, as already pointed out above, affluence converts some of the tea drinkers into coffee drinkers. This trend would, therefore, be good for the coffee producing countries like Uganda,” Museveni said.
However, he said, out of the US$460billion global coffee value, the coffee producing countries only take US$25billion and Africa gets only US$2.4billion, with US$845million going to Uganda because we are now producing 8million, 60kgs each, bags plus now.
“A non-coffee producing country like Germany, earns US$6.85billion!! This is part of the iniquities of the present global parasitic system. In the last 60years, I have been involved in the struggle against this modern slavery for Africa ─ the curse of producing raw-materials for cleverer people in the world to add value to those raw materials and get much more value from them,” the President said.
He said a kg of green coffee of good quality, may go for US$2.5 per kg yet the same quantity of coffee roasted, ground and packaged may go for US$40.
“This is where there is massive haemorrhage of money from the global South to the global North. It is not only the loss of money per kg. It is also the loss of jobs,” he said, adding: “If you take the whole spectrum of raw-materials from agriculture, minerals, forest products, etc., the loss to Africa is massive. That is why the economy of Africa is stunted.”
He revealed that the GDP of the whole massive African continent, with a population now of about 1.5billion people, is USD2.7trillion. “What are the GDP sizes of other, much smaller, individual countries? Here below are some examples: (1) USA – US$25.46trillion (2) China – US$17.96trillion (3) Japan – US$4.23trillion (4) Germany – US$4.07trillion (5) India – US$3.38trillion Even little South Korea has a GDP of USD1.67trillion, nearing the size of the African GDP. It must be pointed out that even this USD2.7trillion is a recent development because the African economies are said to be growing at a fast rate compared to others in the world. Otherwise, Africa’s GDP was only USD500billion some years ago. However, much of that growth may be quantitative, not qualitative ─ producing more raw materials,” he said.
He said the producers of raw-materials need to conduct internal struggles “in our respective countries to add value to these raw materials, including coffee ─ so that we earn more from our sweat and create more jobs for our youth instead of dying in the Mediterranean going to Europe.”
“We also need to sensitize our partners in the countries that have been buying our raw materials at semi-slave prices, that their economics is defective. What will the USA or Europe or Asia lose, if Africa sells added value coffee to them instead of the raw-material form and earn more money? What if the value addition is done to the other raw-materials ─ copper, gold, iron-ore, lithium, etc.? Money to Africa, will mean higher purchasing power for Africa,” he said.
He said the Africans who now lack electricity, will be able to afford to pay for electricity.
“Where will the turbines come from? Will they not come for Europe, USA, Russia, China, or from other partners? How can greed obscure rationality to such an extent? Global affluence will benefit everybody. Down with Imperialism, down with parasitism, long live the win-win strategy,” Museveni said.
About G-25 African Coffee Summit
The summit taking place at Speke Resort Munyonyo will end on 10th 2023 and is running under the theme “Transforming the African Coffee Sector through Value Addition.”
The summit intends to foster synergies to expand regional coffee trade within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Climate change and its impact on coffee farming in Africa will also be discussed.
Robusta coffee (emwanyi) is indigenous to Uganda.
Africa currently produces 12 percent of the world’s coffee, with Uganda leading as the top coffee exporter and the second-largest coffee producer on the continent. However, much of the coffee is exported in unprocessed form, emphasizing the need for value addition within the coffee industry.
