Coffee and Tourism – An Ingenious Strategy by a Big Dreamer

They say if your dreams don’t scare you they are not big enough, this adage rings remarkably true for an ambitious native of Ntungamo District, Western Uganda, whose unbridled and extraordinary aspirations have led to the creation of one of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping investments to ever grace Uganda’s value addition Coffee story.

Nelson Tugume the CEO of Inspire Africa Group (IAG) has set up what projects to be the biggest coffee processing facility in East and Central Africa – The Africa Coffee Park, a massive facility nestled in the hills of Ntungamo, will produce ready to drink/brew coffee, the facility uses the latest freeze-dry technology to locally produce the refined coffee that Africa has been importing.

According to Tugume this will reverse the unfair trade advantage that countries in Africa find themselves in where they are perpetually trapped into merely producing raw output for Western industries.

Many a detractor would say that’s easier said than done, but wait a minute, Tugume does have an ace up his sleeve. Tourism.

The Coffee –Tourism Marriage

Tugume intends to rely on a time-tested and effective strategy that conscripts willing and enthralled fans of Uganda’s coffee from across the world. He intends to grow the export and local consumption of coffee by increasing tourist numbers through what he terms the Coffee Tourism Experience Marketing strategy. This strategy will involve the Uganda Tourism Board working with the IAG to attract and convert massive numbers of both local and foreign tourists to buy into the Uganda Coffee Story.

He has dubbed this grand plan the Africa Renaissance Mission.

Writing in an Opinion Piece this week on Monday, the industry trailblazer says, “There are many coffee-producing countries in the world. However, the final consumer of coffee, especially in the Global North, doesn’t consume the type or quality of the coffee. They consume the story of the coffee.”

Tugume’s mission is to grow our coffee revenue from the current USD 1 billion to USD 5 billion in five years. USD 4 billion he says will be raised through coffee exports, and USD 1 billion from coffee tourism.

Tugume points out that the Renaissance Mission is set to employ a new approach to increase the value of Uganda coffee export revenue for the sustainable growth of the coffee sector.

With ground-breaking events like Coffee marathon, Africa Coffee Festival, Coffee Concerts, Business Forums, Barista Competitions and Coffee DJ shows, IAG hopes to grow tourist numbers from the current 704,012 to 6,000,000.

“To distribute the 7,200 MT of roasted coffee from the Africa Coffee Park, you need a total of 6,000,000 visitors in a year each buying averagely 1.2Kg of high-value-added coffees,” Tugume reveals.

The ambitious entrepreneur goes on to say, “To raise the value of Uganda’s coffee from the current USD 2.5 per kilo to USD 40 per kilo will require us to go into other economies and pull their money into Uganda. This will only work through unconventional means.”

As a statement to his boundless ambition to harness the beauty of Uganda as a catapult to billions of dollars in coffee revenue, Tugume’s Africa Coffee Park is shaping up to be a gargantuan testament to limitless dreams. On top of the Coffee processing plant, the 150—acre Africa Coffee Park will host a 4,000—seater Sports Complex, a 1,000—seater Convention Centre, a Business Centre, a Coffee Academy, an Exhibition Centre and an IT park that will champion Africa’s Artificial Intelligence vision.

Getting consumer palates across the world accustomed to Ugandan Coffee and ensuring IAG coffee is in high demand on shelves in Western countries may sound like a tall order, but to Tugume, it’s a mission within reach – one cup at a time.

Full opinion statement

Our Plan to Transform the Uganda Coffee Industry

By Nelson Tugume

For the last year, Ugandans have speculated about our work in Ntungamo District, where Inspire Africa Group (IAG) is establishing a Coffee Industrial Park, to lead the coffee value addition efforts in Uganda.

The Park, which will have the biggest coffee processing plant in Eastern and Central Africa, will use the latest freeze-dry technology to locally produce the refined coffee that Africa has been importing and ready-to-drink coffee for export. IAG products will include instant coffee, ground coffee, roasted coffee, coffee energy drinks and coffee beauty cosmetics, totalling 15,000 MT annually.

On top of the Coffee processing plant, the 150—acre Africa Coffee Park will host a 4,000—seater Sports Complex, a 1,000—seater Convention Centre, a Business Centre, a Coffee Academy, an Exhibition Centre and an IT park that will champion Africa’s Artificial Intelligence vision.

It is important to note that while we (Africans) call coffee a cash crop, other countries call it an industry. The global coffee industry is valued at USD 460 billion, but Africa earns only USD 2.5 billion. The USD 2.5 billion is just a buy-off of the raw material form (green bean), which accounts for only 12% of the World’s production.

A kilogramme of green bean coffee of good quality may go for USD 2.5. The same quantity of coffee roasted, ground and packaged may go for USD 40. This is where there is a massive haemorrhage of money from the Global South to the Global North. It is not only the loss of money per kilogramme. It is also the loss of jobs. If you take the whole value chain of raw materials from agriculture, minerals, forest products, etc., the loss to Africa is massive.

To raise the value of Uganda’s coffee from the current USD 2.5 per kilo to USD 40 per kilo will require us to go into other economies and pull their money into Uganda.

This will only work through unconventional means. Inspire Africa Group (IAG) proposes a new approach to increase the value of Uganda coffee export revenue for the sustainable growth of the coffee sector. We have called this the Africa Renaissance Mission — a campaign that will grow our coffee revenue from the current USD 1 billion to USD 5 billion in five years. USD 4 billion will be raised through coffee exports, and USD 1 billion from coffee tourism.

The Africa Renaissance Mission will include the Coffee Tourism Experience Marketing strategy. There are many coffee-producing countries in the world. However, the final consumer of coffee, especially in the Global North, doesn’t consume the type or quality of the coffee. They consume the story of the coffee. This explains our strategy to bring on board African icons such as Tanzania’s Diamond Platinumz to tell the story of Africa’s coffee to the world. Diamond has over 20 million followers on his various social media platforms. These include many coffee consumers within and out of Africa — a huge market we can tap into.

I can relate our coffee tourism strategy to what the Government of Rwanda has done in Europe with the leading football clubs. You must have seen clubs like Arsenal and PSG wearing jerseys branded Visit Rwanda. This strategy doesn’t just target the players. It targets the thousands of fans across the globe who enjoy the game of football. Today, when a football fan from France is travelling for a holiday to Rwanda, he has a sense of belonging in the country because of Rwanda’s association with the Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. Another perfect example is the case of both Fly Emirates and Qatar Airways. The last couple of decades have given the Middle East very bad publicity, especially after 9/11 when Al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Centre in New York. Some of the biggest brands from the Middle East, including airlines, suffered a negative impact on the stock markets.

To alleviate this, both Fly Emirates and Qatar Airways entered the European Sports scene as sponsors of football clubs. Fly Emirates sponsors both Arsenal and Real Madrid, while Qatar Airways sponsors PSG and Inter Milan. Similarly, several football fans all over the world, while booking an air ticket, will choose a brand associated with their football club. That is the power of influencer marketing.

Therefore, through our coffee tourism strategy, we envision that coffee consumers will visit Uganda, take coffee while in Uganda, and it is estimated that if a tourist visitor comes to Uganda and spends a week, they can consume about 200 grams of soluble coffee.

Secondly, we predict that coffee consumers will visit Uganda, buy coffee to carry back with to their countries. It is estimated that one visitor can carry with them at least 1 kilogramme of coffee.

Thirdly, we expect that coffee consumers will get accustomed to Ugandan coffee taste and begin ordering the coffee online, or will get tired of delayed delivery online and demand stores in their countries to stock Ugandan coffee. This will introduce Uganda coffee brand onto the shelves of other countries.

To distribute the 7,200 MT of roasted coffee from the Africa Coffee Park, you need a total of 6,000,000 visitors in a year each buying averagely 1.2Kg of high value- added coffees.

This will require Inspire Africa Group and Uganda Tourism Board to focus on activities that will attract visitors to Uganda to increase the numbers from the current 704,012 to 6,000,000. These include seemingly coffee unrelated activities such as Coffee marathon, Africa Coffee Festival, Coffee Concerts, Business Forums, Barista Competitions, Coffee DJ shows, among others.