Carico Coffee

We were established in 2016 as a family-owned company to produce and sell premium and specialty coffees in Uganda and for export. Coffee exported will have value addition such as our new biodegradable and compostable Nespresso compatible capsules which we manufacture in Uganda.

We work directly with over 1000 farmers in the Bugisu region of eastern Uganda. Our farmers are located in Bududa, Bulambuli and Sironko Districts which contain Mount Elgon, a UNESCO designated Man & Biosphere Reserve.

The higher slopes of the mountain are protected by national parks in Uganda and Kenya, creating an extensive trans-boundary conservation area. The loss of forest cover on Mount Elgon has resulted in increasing landslides and deaths caused by them. Between 1800 and 2000 it is estimated that 134 lives were lost in the Mount Elgon region due to landslides. Since 2000 the number of deaths caused by landslides in the region has tripled.

We hail from the Bugisu region and are aware of the challenges facing the farmers in our home region. Therefore, we work with them as a social enterprise on a holistic economic, social and ecological strategy. Using coffee farming as the anchor, progress has, and continues to be made in all three areas.

We are for-profit business, and we invest in social and ecological projects. We sell roasted and ground coffee as beans, ground coffee and Nespresso compatible capsules which are biodegradable and compostable. We also produce and sell CBD and mushroom coffees in the USA and Europe.

We have started planting trees to restore the forest cover in the area. In 2021 we planted over 11,000 tree and we aim to plant 100,000 additional trees.

More than 2 million people, over 735,000 under 24 years, live in the Mount Elgon region where 55% of the population is under 18. Education attainments in the area are in the lowest 10% of the country, health and poverty indices are also in the lowest centiles, despite being the hub of Arabica coffee farming (the country’s largest agricultural export) for almost a century.

The volcanic soils are fertile, and the land is farmed to over 2,200 metres altitude.

In 2018 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) carried out a survey on the biodiversity on Mount Elgon and placed 9 mammals, 14 birds, 5 amphibians, 1 reptile and 8 butterflies on a biodiversity Red List. The Park is home to over 300 species of birds, including the endangered lammergeier. and blue monkeys as well as black and white colobus monkeys. A small number of elephants are residents of forests.

Lack of alternatives that would use the trees in a sustainable manner results in rapid degradation of entire ecosystem and landslides resulting in the annual loss of lives.

This region needs ecologically sensitive planning to promote economic growth. We have a trained arborist who has surveyed farms covering 2500 hectares and recommended the type and number of trees needed by the small-scale farmers who till this land. Arabica coffee is grown in this region and is one of Uganda’s main exports earning the national millions of dollars annually and employing millions of small-scale farmers.