Welcome to Bariguna

Christoph Hamm is a retired UN official who has worked many years in East Africa - including in South Sudan and Uganda. His wife Fulgencia Kpatikpati comes from South Sudan. Bariguna is her home village and is located in the border triangle with Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR). Her half-brother Ahmed is Ugandan and one of the directors of Bariguna.

Another member of the Bariguna team is Stephan Katongole, a German-Ugandan, who was born and raised in Germany and returned to Uganda to manage the family farm. He specializes in a fully organic farming approach and the production of “Fine Robusta” - a washed and a rare “honey processed” Robusta. His farm is located in the Central region of Maska, near Lake Victoria, one of the main Robusta producing regions in Uganda.

Background

The idea for the Bariguna coffee project was developed in 2020 after many years of work and life as a UN staff in East Africa. The experiences in Uganda and South Sudan, among other countries, were the background for an effort aimed at working with producers in rural, often isolated areas building on their own resources. An engagement in South Sudan was originally planned, but had to be abandoned because of insecurity in rural areas since the outbreak of the third civil war in 2013. Uganda being the second home of my family, it was the obvious alternative choice to establishing our project.

The main goal of the project is to work closely with small farmers and producers and encourage them to improve their farm management, harvest and post-harvest management processes in order to qualify for the international specialty coffee market. Thus, the producers will maximize their benefits on the basis of the same resources at their disposal, namely their land and coffee farms. In addition, many buyers in the specialty coffee market are also committed to transparency and fairness in the value chain and offer support to producers, through premiums or otherwise. In this perspective, a partnership with one importer and an international environmental NGO was established.

Coffee Related Projects

In its efforts to connect coffee production to environmental conservation, Bariguna is collaborating with Joel Kaburu, a former Forest Ranger and now producer of specialty coffee micro-lots. Due to his work with fauna and flora in the national parks, he has a keen interest in experimenting with organic cultivation, special processing and sustainable use of resources. He advises the project on experimental and innovative technologies to use the by-products of coffee processing.

Through the partnership with a German specialty importer and an environmental NGO we have been able to raise premiums and link farmers to the “Green Future Project” which offers technical support in building bio-gas digesters for cooking gas, rain water catchment tanks, training in the production of organic fertilizers and pesticides and general soil conservation methods.

In addition, Bariguna is looking for innovative methods and technologies for recycling waste from coffee processing. Some options are the production of organic fertilizer from coffee cherry pulp and other natural ingredients to replace artificial fertilizers or kitchen fuel “briquettes” from pressed coffee husks to reduce the use of charcoal and deforestation.