Established in 1991, Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) supports all coffee development activities from research to coffee consumption. We spoke to UCDA Managing Director Henry Ngabirano. Excerpts:-
What does UCDA do?
We support all development activities right from research through coffee consumption. Anything in the value chain we have our fingers maintained in terms of support. On top of that we also provide information we collect; statistics on behalf of government in terms of coffee processing. We do financially support the research institute under the NARO to do researchable areas we have identified in the coffee industry like yield, better quality, and weed and disease control. All these areas we have supported in terms of collaboration with the research institute.
But, what continues to worry coffee experts is the wide discrepancy between coffee consumption in the producing countries and their counterparts in non-coffee growing countries. Presently 20% of the world population consumes coffee. Surprisingly 58% of this consumption takes place in non-coffee producing countries in Europe, USA, and Japan. The fastest consumption growth rate has been recorded in Asia, the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe with the remaining percentage registered in coffee producing countries. 
Plans to set up a community eco-lodge in Kisoro near the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park were rather cloudy. It has taken close to eight years for the sky to clear and Uganda’s first eco-lodge is now reaping big from its leap of faith. On January 16, Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge won the first runner-up investor award. The investors, Uganda Safari Company, won not just for the high-end lodge that they built next to Bwindi National Park, but more especially for their involvement with the local community.
When the NRM government came to power, the economy was in shambles. The road network was down due to the over two decades of fighting that had rendered certain parts of the country inaccessible. The industries were in shambles; virtually every sector of the economy had been run down. The government of the day was aloof to the problems and suffering of the people as it continued to suck the little that could still be produced with reckless abandon. 
Uganda still reigns as a model in the fight against AIDS because of turning around a scourge that stood at a prevalence of 30 percent in 1992 to the current 6.4 percent.
