Their reputations matter because they seal deals with little more than a handshake
Middlemen like Mr Lwanga are the human infrastructure of African economies. Big cash crops, such as coffee, cocoa and cashew nuts, are grown on small, scattered farms, often far from any tarmac. Somehow they must reach the warehouses of a few giant companies, before being shipped abroad. By solving this conundrum, middlemen help turn the harvest of a million gardens into cappuccinos and chocolate bars enjoyed thousands of miles away.
The Ugandan coffee trade is now a free-for-all, built on trust and treachery. More than a million farmers keep coffee trees, typically grown alongside other crops in plots smaller than a football field. They usually sell to middlemen on motorcycles, who sell to larger traders with trucks, in a chain that stretches to the foreign-owned firms which dominate exports.
Reputation matters because middlemen seal deals with little more than a handshake. In the absence of strong agricultural banks, they often double as moneylenders, paying cash in advance. Sometimes a middleman will pre-buy an entire field at a knockdown price when the trees have only just flowered. That reflects fierce competition for coffee. But the relationships thus established may also keep clients loyal.
Middlemen are driven by volumes, not quality. Some buy coffee before it is ready, says Apollo Kamugisha, an official at the coffee regulator, which is trying to impose stricter sanctions on traders who deal in unripe cherries. A similar challenge arises in many countries, notes Paul Stewart of TechnoServe, a non-profit that works across Africa. Farmers need incentives to deliver good coffee, “and often the only way to do that is to shorten the chain”.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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