Coffee entrepreneur Andrew Rugasira on empowering women farmers in Uganda |
How do we ensure that opening up new markets helps to build up the
economies of the developing world? And what role should women play in
it? Bridget Kendall is joined by Sherry Coutu, a seasoned angel investor
from Canada; leading Ugandan coffee entrepreneur Andrew Rugasira; and
Oxford University anthropologist Catherine Dolan who studies the
intersection of business and poverty.
Read More
|
Don't Help me, Trust me Your African Coffee Producer |
At a recent speech at DRI, Andrew Rugasira described what happened as Good African Coffee,
the business he founded in Uganda’s Rwenzori mountains, began to take
off. As farmers began to produce higher quality coffee and see higher
prices for their crops:
Something really extraordinary began to happen. The
values that we don’t really hear about in a lot of these development
reports began to manifest: entrepreneurship, business exposure, dignity,
esteem, the pride in producing a product that they knew was going into a
market…Read More
|
Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy? |
When he set out to wedge his coffee onto supermarket shelves in England
and America, Andrew Rugasira didn’t start by making phone calls from his
home in Kampala, Uganda. He didn’t begin by sending e-mails. The
distance seemed too great for that. At one end of his business were
farmers who, until he came along, thought their beans were purchased and
carried off to make gunpowder.
At the other were buyers at the
corporate headquarters of chains like Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, Whole
Foods and Wal-Mart. If he was going to succeed, he felt he would have to
do it physically; it was as if he believed he could stretch himself to
span the divide between the two worlds. So he got on a plane to London,
without trying any advance contact.Read More
|
|
More Articles...
-
November 11, 2011 -
Selling Ugandan coffee on US shelves: A story of persistence and constant lessons
-
November 9, 2011 -
Selling Ugandan coffee on US shelves: A story of persistence and constant lessons
-
October 29, 2011 -
Good African Coffee: From Kasese hills to American malls
-
October 29, 2011 -
Andrew Rugasira Rebuilding Uganda One Farmer At A Time
-
October 22, 2011 -
Andrew Rugasira:Rebuilding Uganda One Farmer At A Time
-
March 23, 2011 -
Andrew Rugasira announcing the launch of the Good African Online Store.
-
December 13, 2010 -
When it comes to dealing with austerity, Africa wrote the textbook
-
July 1, 2010 -
Nkosi sikelele Africa
-
July 5, 2010 -
Tesco's (UK) Retails Our Coffee
-
June 22, 2010 -
Coffee May Protect Against Head and Neck Cancers
|