Key takeaways

• Global coalition invests in Uganda’s future. UNIDO, JDE Peet's, The J.M. Smucker Co., and Lavazza Foundation commit €850,000 toward a WCR-led effort to strengthen seed system supply chain resilience in Africa's largest coffee exporter.
• Better plants mean higher farmer profits. New disease-resistant varieties can increase smallholder earnings by up to 250% while combating deadly coffee wilt disease.
• Nurseries will ramp up resilient production. The project establishes gardens to produce 460,000 high-yielding trees annually to help meet Uganda's 2030 production targets.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and World Coffee Research (WCR), through the Advancing Climate-Resilience and Transformation in African Coffee Programme (ACT), today announced a €850,000 co-investment in a new initiative to strengthen Uganda's coffee seed systems, support farmer livelihoods, and advance long-term sustainability. The initiative brings together WCR, UNIDO—implementing the ACT Coffee Programme with funding from the Italian Cooperation—the Lavazza Foundation, The J.M. Smucker Co., and JDE Peet's in a coalition committed to securing the future of Uganda's coffee sector.

The three-year project will expand access to high-quality planting material, creating new pathways to deliver improved coffee seedlings to farmers and helping boost productivity and resilience across Uganda's coffee sector—Africa's largest coffee exporter.

The initiative supports Uganda's national goal of reaching 20 million bags of annual production by 2030. Currently, Ugandan coffee farmers face significant challenges from diseases, including coffee wilt disease (CWD) in robusta and coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease in arabica. Previous research has shown that using CWD-resistant varieties can increase smallholder farmer profits by up to 250%, securing livelihoods and sustaining the coffee value chain.

The project addresses key priorities outlined in a recently released roadmap for prioritized investment in coffee R&D and seed systems, led by Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) in collaboration with WCR. Building on the 2024 G7 endorsement of greater public-sector engagement in agricultural R&D investment, UNIDO’s participation through the ACT Coffee Programme supports African coffee-producing countries in transforming their value chains toward greater sustainability and climate resilience.

The programme targets strengthening Uganda's seed system infrastructure by:

Expanding access to resilient varieties: Establishing new robusta mother gardens and nurseries across Northern, Central, and Western Uganda. These will produce up to 460,000 high-yielding, CWD-resistant (KR line) robusta trees per year, including use of grafting onto liberica rootstock to address drought conditions in the North.

Ensuring genetic purity: Genotyping over 5,000 robusta mother garden plants to ensure genetic conformity and purity, providing farmers with confidence that their new trees will deliver the expected resilience and productivity.

Strengthening local capacity: Collaborating closely with key government partners, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Coffee Department, and the National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI), to train technicians on quality assurance and advanced propagation techniques, including international training at centres of excellence such as Cenicafé in Colombia.

Stimulating demand: Establishing demonstration plots for both KR robusta lines and advanced arabica hybrids to showcase performance and stimulate farmer adoption of high-performing planting material.

The public-private partnership builds upon WCR’s previous years of work in Uganda to enhance farmer access to high-quality plants and provide the coffee industry with a secure source of future supply.

"Uganda's coffee sector holds extraordinary potential, and this initiative demonstrates precisely the kind of public-private partnership that can unlock it," said Andrea De Marco, UNIDO Programme Manager and Partnership Advisor. "Through the ACT Coffee Programme, UNIDO is working to ensure that the benefits of innovation in seed systems and climate-resilient varieties reach the smallholder farmers who need them most, building the foundation for a coffee sector that is productive, sustainable, and equitable."

"This initiative reflects Lavazza Foundation's long-term commitment to supporting coffee-growing communities through science, innovation, and collaboration," said Veronica Rossi of the Lavazza Foundation. "Uganda has been a key country for our work for many years, where we have partnered with local institutions and communities to strengthen livelihoods, promote sustainable agriculture, and build resilience. Investing in seed systems means empowering farmers with high-quality, resilient planting material and contributing to a more sustainable future for the coffee sector as a whole."

"Our members invest in WCR to tackle the global, systemic challenges that individual companies cannot solve alone. This commitment by WCR member companies JDE Peet's, Lavazza Foundation, and The J.M. Smucker Co., alongside UNIDO, validates the power of collective action to de-risk key origins and secure the future of quality coffee supply," said Dr. Jennifer "Vern" Long, CEO of World Coffee Research.