Uganda Mabono Honey

The Story Behind the Coffee

From our exporter Mountain Harvest:

“In an isolated community with little access to good roads, Mountain Harvest has nestled a micro washing station between 4 hills of Mount Elgon - Mabono, Namesti, Itimbwa, and Bukalasi. Here Uthman Muluwa, Processing Lead of Mabono, buys cherries and processes them with a team of Assistants. Unlike so many other companies, Mountain Harvest diversifies where we process, utilizing micro washing stations surrounded by demonstration gardens, exposing farmers to new ways of coffee farming. This station is a perfect example of education through demonstration. Here, we demonstrate to farmers with little access to processing and agronomy education how to invest in their farm businesses with new techniques towards better productivity and quality.”

“The core mission of Mountain Harvest is to challenge the status quo of coffee production in Uganda for the sake of smallholder farmers. For Mabono, we offer a story of the Station's leader - Uthman Mulawa. In a country with little coffee professionalism and training available, Mountain Harvest must see the potential in all people - from casual laborers, interns, field officers and managers. Uthman began as a casual laborer often referred to as a "heavy loader," carrying coffee at each stage of production within our facility. We noticed whenever Uthman had down time, he would wander over to the Processing Station and begin doing processing work out of pure interest. That type of motivation and curiosity must be rewarded. By next season, he became a Processing Assistant and in two years, a Lead Processing Technician of Mabono. His success is now our reward.”