Dutch trip: Best farmers seek better markets for their coffee

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Thirteen winners of the 2024 Best Farmers competition travelled to the Netherlands on October 4-11, 2025. They were grouped into five clusters; dairy, coffee, poultry, beekeeping and entrepreneurship for each to explore innovations in their respective fields.

Last week, we covered the coffee cohort. In the second of a five-part series, Joshua Kato focuses on the coffee team, who explored fair, sustainable market opportunities to expand Uganda’s coffee presence in Europe.

On October 7, when they departed from Fletcher Hotel in Doorwerth, the coffee farmers had one goal in mind: finding new markets and experiences for their coffee. Each carried premium samples from their farms and processing units.

The delegation had Joseph Nkandu from National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), Godfrey Bwaya from Elgon Coffee Farmers Co-operative, Meridah Nandudu from Bayaaya Coffee, Janny Oyella from Ground Zero Agro Enterprises and Priscilla Becks from EMSA — the organisation that hosted the farmers in Netherlands An hour later, their Mercedes Benz wagon pulled up outside We Wonder Beans, a specialty coffee and tea company located on the outskirts of Utrecht, one of the cities in Netherlands.

Taste of Dutch innovation

We Wonder Beans is a Dutch company that prioritises quality over quantity, offering a range of flavoured coffees and teas.

The company imports Ugandan coffee, specifically from Bugisu, eastern Uganda, through David Wamai, owner of Butta Farmers Co-operative Society in Manafwa district.

The farmers were warmly welcomed by Ferry Poppegaai, co-founder and director of We Wonder Beans.

As the rich aroma of coffee filled the air, each farmer was served a cup of cappuccino.

The facility stood out for its sustainable packaging, using recycled paper and metal for its coffee, tea and spice products.

Poppegaai emphasised the company’s commitment to a transparent and fair coffee supply chain, ensuring farmers who sell directly earn a fair price.

Best farmers inside We Wonder facility at Utretcht.

He also highlighted their investments in biodiversity and reforestation, noting that coffee monoculture are highly polluting, with 1.7 million trees cut down every hour.

“We Wonder Beans aims at transforming coffee plantations worldwide into carbon-dioxide absorbing Wonder Farms,” Poppegaai said.

Carbon absorbing is a process where trees help take in carbon-dioxide from the environment which humans do not need and release oxygen that humans need.

He added that Uganda is among the African countries benefiting from the initiatives.

The farmers resonated with this vision.

“One of the reasons I started NUCAFE was to help farmers earn more from their coffee,” Nkandu said.

“We were being exploited by traders,” Godfrey Bwaya added. Meridah Nandudu shared that she founded Bayaaya Coffee to empower women and young farmers.

Opportunities in Deventer

From Utrecht, the group travelled south to Deventer, another city in Netherlands, where they visited Fleur de Café, a distinguished coffee company known for sourcing and roasting high-quality beans.

Director Marc Steenhuis welcomed the farmers and shared the company’s history and values. Founded in 1994, Fleur de Café has built a reputation for excellence in the Dutch coffee industry.

The company maintains direct relationships with farmers, ensuring fair and sustainable practices.

Their expert roasters bring out the unique flavours of each origin, and they offer comprehensive coffee solutions including equipment, training and support.

The company is already buying coffee from Kyaganyi Coffee, a Ugandan coffee exporter. During the tour, the farmers observed a modern, but modest roasting and packaging system, including sacks of coffee from Uganda.

The company also sells coffee processing equipment, such as medium-sized roasters valued at around $12,000 (about sh42m).

“We help coffee farmers and processors worldwide acquire these machines at fair prices,” he said.

Steenhuis says he buys coffee in about one 40-tonne container at a go. However, he promised to link the Ugandan farmers to other buyers across Europe who buy in larger quantities.

All the Ugandan farmers left coffee samples with him.

Dutch Coffee market

According to World Global Coffee Imports, the Netherlands ranked as the ninth largest coffee importer in 2024, with imports worth $1.6b.

However, only 36% of these imports come from producing countries, mainly Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia, with small quantities imported from Uganda by companies like We Wonder Beans and Fleur De Café.

“There is very big potential for Ugandan coffee here in Netherlands,” Steenhuis told the farmers.

He advised that sustainability and certification are increasingly important in the Dutch market and demand for high-quality coffee is growing.

He added that entering the Dutch market requires compliance with EU food safety regulations, particularly around traceability and hygiene.

“We are aware of the new EU guidelines and are sensitising our farmers accordingly,” Nkandu said.

In the meantime, Uganda’s largest European buyers remain Italy and Germany, with exports worth: $375.7m to Italy (up 45.1%) and $226.8m to Germany (up 35%).

Coffee prices: global and local perspectives

Coffee pricing was a key topic during discussions.

Poppegaai said their mission to combat exploitation by middlemen. After a slump between April and June, global coffee futures have rebounded due to dry weather in Brazil and tightening supplies.

Locally, Robusta Screen 15 led sales with 1,500 bags, followed by Screen 12 with 960 bags.

Among Arabica varieties, Bugisu AA, A, fetched top prices at around sh28,591–28,666/kg.

According to the agriculture ministry, farm gate prices per kilogramme as of October 14, 2025, were:

 

• Kiboko: sh6,000–sh6,500
• FAQ: sh13,000–sh13,500 n Arabica Parchment: sh14,000–15,000
• Drugar (clean): sh13,000– 14,000 Despite price volatility, farmers across Uganda’s coffee-growing regions remain cautiously optimistic.

 

Coffee trade performance

At Fleur de Café in Deventer, Ugandan farmers beamed with pride as they spotted 60kg sacks of Ugandan coffee stacked alongside international brands, which was an affirmation of their country’s growing presence in the global coffee market.

Uganda’s coffee exports continue to show strong performance.

According to the agriculture ministry’s August sector report, the country exported 855,441 bags (each weighing 60kg), earning $202.8m (approximately sh693.6b) at an average price of $3.95 (sh13,509) per kilogramme.

While this marked a slight decline from $4.19 (sh14,330) per kilogramme in July 2025 and $4.41 (sh15,082) in August 2024, the export volume increased by 2.45% compared to the same period last year — indicating resilience in the face of price fluctuations.

Over the 12-month period from September 2024 to August 2025, Uganda exported 7.9 million bags of coffee, valued at $2.2b (sh7.52 trillion).

This represents a 17.9% increase in volume and a remarkable 58.7% rise in export value compared to the previous year’s 6.7 million bags worth $1.4b (sh4.79 trillion).

These figures underscore Uganda’s strengthening position in the global coffee trade, driven by increased production, improved quality, and expanding market access.

Below are the 15 countries that imported the highest dollar value worth of coffee during 2024.

 

• United States: $9b (17.7% of total coffee imports)
• Germany: $6.1b (12%)
• France: $3.4b (6.7%)
• Italy: $3.1b (6.1%)
• Canada: $1.9b (3.7%)
• Belgium: $1.8b (3.5%)
• Spain: $1.79b (3.5%)
• Japan: $1.72b (3.4%)
• Netherlands: $1.6b (3.1%)
• Switzerland: $1.41b (2.8%)
• United Kingdom: $1.41b (2.8%)
• South Korea: $1.24b (2.4%)
• Poland: $1.24b (2.4%)
• China: $972.7m (1.9%)
• Russia: $673.8m (1.3%).

 

What farmers say

Joseph Nkandu from NUCAFE

This is a very big opportunity for Ugandan farmers to increase the amount of coffee that we export to the Netherlands. We are going to increase sensitisation of our farmers especially with the EU coffee standards so that we export more coffee here.

Godfrey Bwaya, Elgon Coffee Farmers Cooperative

Beyond the coffee roasting and market, I also saw some coffee processing equipment which we are interested in. I will discuss with my people to see how we access it.

Meridah Nandudu, Bayaaya Coffee

We deal with many smallholder farmers and it is interesting to note that coffee buyers here respect smallholder farmers and are willing to pay a good price for quality coffee. I was impressed by their seemingly small but efficient processing systems.

Janny Oyella, Ground Zero Agro-enterprises

My experience is that although the Dutch do not grow coffee, they value it because they do not only drink it, but also buy it and export it to other countries after processing it. This has also inspired me to start processing my coffee.