microstations meet Uganda

In 2018, when Andy, Aggrey, and Jason started Zombo Coffee Partners Ltd, they envisioned a future that offered a solution for the three main problems farmers face in the Zombo region: lack of infrastructure, poor quality, and no access to the market. Andy, the founder and designer of the micro-station model and of Zombo, thought a future in which farmers become independent is possible. He has been working to prove this since.

By offering an above-market cherry price to farmers and paying a bonus for quality, c-price freedom can be achieved; by providing technical and processing assistance, quality can get better and stabilize. Andy Carlton's strategic system has helped farmers over the past years to improve the quality and consistency of their coffee; together with his long-term business partner Aggrey, they've been supporting farmers to become economic actors in their own right by owning and running the micro stations. Livelihood in this neglected region of the world is beginning to improve, and farmers are now projecting a future for their children's education.

Zombo operates in one of the country's poorest regions in the West Nile. The farmers, mostly Alur people, grow most of their own food and have a hundred coffee trees in their fields. Before Zombo, however, coffee was something like a cash machine for most farmers. They still needed to see what improving quality could offer them. Or, as Aggrey puts it: "Farmers used to look at coffee as something falling from their trees. They used to only look at coffee when the season came."

Over the past years, results have started to spread and manifest. Zombo has managed an exponential price increase and solid growth. But, sadly, large exporters are all too aware of this situation, and when they heard that Zombo was paying higher prices and making farmers co-owners of their company, they decided to outbid them. What will happen when they force Zombo to close down? They can return to their usual practice of squeezing farmers with shamefully low prices and no competition.

Our job, and that of the partners we introduced to Zombo, is to not let that happen…

 

  • DescripUganda is already well-known for excellent robusta coffee.  In recent years Uganda has begun to build a second reputation, as an origin of fine arabica coffees.  Fertile land, volcanic soils, plentiful rainfall and sunshine, good varietals, diverse pockets of suitable micro-climates and altitudes, all combine with improved production practices to contribute to this emerging origin of really tasty specialty coffees.

    The Zombo region, the Alur Highlands, is for most coffee people a blind spot on the map. It is located on the western banks of the Nile, the river that leaves Lake Albert and starts its long, meandering journey to the Mediterranean.  On this hilly plateau, the Alur people speak a Nilotic language which is not related to the majority Bantu languages of sub-Saharan Africa.  They have strong cross-border family relationships in DR Congo, next door. 

    Zombo Coffee Partners is pioneering an innovative business model, a unique African hybrid that combines a private shareholder company with a group of smallholder cooperatives by offering the coops shares in the company.  Zombo works in close partnership with the coops, helping their members to add value by improving quality, and sharing profits with them when we sell their coffee, all with a mindset and focus of full price transparency and open book keeping.  Next to all this, Zombo has a strong focus on helping the farmers to break free of the C-price trap for coffee as a commodity, a mission that lies very close to the heart of This Side Up.

    This is the original document Andy wrote in 2016 about how the microstation concept developed. tion text goes here

These are the microstations whose coffee we buy through Zombo.

We used to work with different microstations in the past and in 2026 we are working closely with only a few and go in depth in the coming years. We are working to integrate this new portfolio also in the storytelling shortlyt.

 

farmers: 85
trees: 39.515

CULAMUK

farmers: 300
trees: 90000

farmers: 116
trees: 53.739

AYANVU

farmers: 85
trees: 24.940

 
 
 

Currently Zombo Coffee Partners do the dry milling and export. The dry mill is located on Jukia Hill. Since last year they have also been buying from the surrounding farmers - who live directly next to the mill - and are conducting experiments with fermentation in the building (large barn) of the mill itself.

farmers: 47
trees: 18.808

 
 

Zombo operates unlike any other value chain we work in. Not only do the farmers own the microstations themselves (not indirectly through a cooperative) but Zombo as an exporting entity is 25% farmer-owned. They outsource dry milling capacity to a third party miller in Kampala.

Traceability

You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Zombo since 2021 below (Google Drive).

Contracts and shipping documents Zomb0
 

2018: Became friends with Aggrey and Andy of Zombo Coffee Partners within weeks of their company starting.

2019: Bought our first Zombo specialty coffee, from micromills Ajere (then called “Atyenda”) and Culamuk.

2020: Started discussing the C-Price Freedom concept – getting away from New York’s mad roller-coaster. This Side Up worked with four microstations, being Culamuk, Ajere, Gonyobendo and Ndhew. Next to these “single microstation coffees”, the peaberry was a blend of six microstations, the other two being Ayaka and Ambe. 

2021: Zombo paid a floor price of 60 USD cents per kg of fresh cherry for the first time. thanks to the support from two donors, The Royal Dutch Embassy in Kampala and Irish Aid, channeled via Oxfam Uganda, two new farmer groups were created this year: Mitapila and Ayanyonga. Their coffees came with amazing results: Mitapila stood out with scores around 86 for both the fully-washed and the women’s natural coffees. Ayanyonga’s scores were only slightly below, around 85

2022: Farmers were paid the highest prices ever for their fresh cherry – we visited some of the coffee microstations.

2023: The Futureproof Coffee Uganda project started – bringing regenerative agriculture to the Ugandan north-west, courtesy of This Side Up customer Wakuli and the Dutch government.

 
 
 

Andy Carlton

Email: andy@zombocoffee.com

Phone: +256 787 251280

 
 
 

Ovuru Village, Paidha, Zombo District, Uganda

 
 

fostering the unity in comm’unity’

This microstation was built in 2019 with an ambition to unite the coffee farmers within the community. This unity would certainly play to their advantage in quality control and meeting demands. It was expected to foster collective learning as well as capacity building in the community. During the last few years they have faced several challenges including security threats due to lack of fences, lack of financing year around and quality issues due to climate change. Yet, their motivation to stick together comes from their positive experiences with Zombo.

From the perspective of coffee trade and production they have been able to benefit from better prices, access to knowledge, consistent quality. Being together as a group also had other advantages in the last few years. It reduced gender based violence within households, challenged mindsets and offered the inspiration to work together for their individual and communal prosperity. They also continue to rely on coffee (beyond their income) for it's role in mitigating climate change by creating an ecosystem that is rich in agroforestry.

  • When we visited Uganda last year, severe poverty was still a striking thing, even when it had not been the first visit. Three things came to mind:

    1. Do these coffee farmers really want to be a coffee farmer, or do they need to be?

    2. How can we make an impact via our coffee buying, when the market is so high?

    3. How to fit our approach to what the roaster and consumer market wants?

    In a situation of extreme poverty, survival is what counts. You want your kids to go to school, and the school fees need to be paid. You work with a cash crop to cover for those bills, and the other crops of the farm are for daily food. The cash crop is often coffee, and even more so often, little pride is taken into it. You just have to do it.How to make impact via our buying

    The microstation model of Zombo Coffee Partners reaches a lot of people. Many smallholder farmers are connected to the microstations where they deliver their coffee. With the geographical span and the different specializations of these microstations, the taste profiles differ quite a bit.

    This is good for a mixed portfolio of flavors. However, you end up buying a little bit everywhere. And when the market is as high as it has been, the competition pays the same, just to get “coffee” in a tight market, it makes your proposal and connection to the coffee producers limited. 

    On the other hand, the This Side Up network believes and lives strongly in integrated value chains, where a coffee consumer and a coffee farmer will be connected year on year. In order to make that happen here, we decided to focus on one microstation, the Ndhew microstation.

    It has several small villages connected to it, amongst them the village where the Basic Income project is being done. It’s also the village that for the last few years, had been performing very well on the cupping table. It was also this fact that led us to selecting it as the starting place of the project.

    For the first time this year, we are buying coffees from different buying points within the Ndhew Microstation instead of bulking it. We call them microlots. It gives us several things: 

    • the ability to give quicker feedback on quality and consistency - rewarding farmers that do well and inform those that need to improve 

    • the opportunity to give second payments for best performing coffee - rewarding doesn’t only come in words 

    • a pathway to more tailored coffee processing for roaster clients, as volumes are smaller - connecting the value chain closer together, becoming part of each other’s intimate portfolio 

    Following the suggestion of Zombo Coffee Partners, we also have separated them into men and women’s lots, where the women (often single mothers) get a small premium. For the extra work of separating the lots, the microstation gets an extra bonus. For the quality premium, we’re paying $0,20/kg via a “winner takes it all” system, adding a little competition element to it all. This will be transferred once the landed coffees have been cupped, and when we’ve blindly selected a winner.
    Next to this, we won’t just abandon the other microstations overnight. We’ll be buying as well from Culamuk, Ajere, Jukia and Ayanvu. If successful, we’ll apply the above approach there as well in the coming years.

    Will it all work?

    So far the theory. Sounds all good, doesn’t it? Well, the proof is in the pudding. And thankfully, that pre shipment sample pudding tastes sweet! To our own happy surprise, the different buying point microlots taste very different. They’re also small, making it “adoption friendly” for roasters who’d like to add a microlot to their year-on-year portfolio. 

    The other fun part is that together with Eight world, we’ve launched a platform page making it possible for roasters to contribute to the basic income part via their own unique way, and thus also making the basic income project directly connected to their microlot coffee! 

    We feel we’re a step closer to a tailor-made approach to support our coffee friends in Uganda, via the means our ecosystem can provide in the broadest sense of our diversity. It offers a trajectory for those growers to embark on an upward cycle of quality improvement, more professionalization and most importantly, on a path to something they want to do!

This is an initial grouping based on the farmers’ proximity to each buying point. We are still collecting and verifying data on the actual farmer-to-buying-point connections, so the clusters shown here may be refined as more data becomes available.

Ndhew Lot — Grower Traceability Map

Ndhew Lot

Grower traceability — Nebbi District, West Nile, Uganda

We buy microlots from these farmer groups belonging to the Ndhew Microstation

 

ATEGO
Total bags bought : 19 (including men and women’s lot)

TANGANA
Total bags bought : 9 (including men and women’s lot)

OMOYO
Total bags bought : 26 (including men and women’s lot)

TEKUZA
Total bags bought : 21 (including men and women’s lot)

 

NDHEW
Total bags bought : 30 (including men and women’s lot)

OWILO
Total bags bought : 6 (including men and women’s lot)

OKEBU
Total bags bought : 20 (including men and women’s lot)

 
 

VARIETALS

Most of the coffee grown in the Alur Highlands of north-west Uganda is SL14, a variety developed by Scott Laboratories in Kenya and promoted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.  There is also some Bourbon, which comes from nearby DR Congo, where it dominates. 

elevation

1445 meters

NOTABLE

They grow coffee for self consumption at home as well as for it’s ability to reduce health risks and aiding them with mental alertness throughout the day. The basic income project has been launched successfully in this microstation on 27th July 2024 and will go on for 2 years.

PROCESSING


When coffee is harvested and taken to the buying stations of Ndhew, Leda, and Ayanyunga, it is either spread on tarpaulin or a quality table for hand-sorting to remove any underripe or overripe fruit.
After hand-sorting, it is then taken to the weighing scale, and floating is done immediately to separate the good, red ripe cherries, i.e., those free of disease. Finally, the executives lay out the quality red ripe cherries in the sun on the drying rack/table until they turn from red to brown or nearly black to attain the recommended moisture level. They keep turning the cherries to prevent molding, which can easily affect the flavor if not done thoroughly. The hulling process to remove the thick, dried outer layer is then carried out at the ZCP factory, revealing the green beans.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

2026 Landed SAMPLES

Uganda Zombo - Tekuza microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Owilo women microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Atego women microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Tangana women microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Owilo microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Tangana microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Jukia microstation - 72hr fermented natural
Uganda Zombo - Atego microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Omoyo women microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Omoyo microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Okebu women microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Okebu microlot - natural
Uganda Zombo - Tekuza women microlot - natural


 

  • The price you pay for women’s lot from buying point p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The microstation model in Uganda is to make sure the farmers profit the most which also means they work on the harvest and processing to sell green beans export grade to Zombo coffee partners. The Ndhew microstation has several buying points under them that we have agreed together on creating traceable lots. It is mainly divided into men’s and women’s lots. This includes the quality and social premiums.

  • This value is made of up several different factors including the costs of wet milling, grain & jute bags,sorting Zombo’s overhead and financing as well as the regenerative training per kg is included within this price. Zombo buys green coffee export grade but assists the microstations to fulfill their commitments by investing in quality control, regenerative agri and finding a market for these coffees. This is also including the profits.

  • This includes shipping from Mombasa to Rotterdam. The coffees are brought on truck from Uganda and then loaded on a ship at Kenya.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.This is also includes stock surchage, storage fee and customs. It also includes our profits per Kg.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project. The Ugandans are using to train their farmers on making organic inputs from local materials to reduce the cost of production as well as increase the productivity per tree.

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Tangana Women’s lot. € 1,34 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page

 
 

where innovation and tradition meet

In 2021, Zombo coffee partners built their own coffee factory at Jukia Hill which came into operation in 2022. This is where the dry coffee is brought to be made into export quality. They have employed women from the farms around the factory for hand sorting. Jukia microstation currently has 300 registered members from whom it buys cherries and uses specific fermentation techniques to processes them in a natural way.

The land around this factory was cleared in 2021 and was planted with SL14, robusta, SL28, Excelsa which were left on their own long enough until Lucy arrived at Zombo. Lucy was appointed as the caretaker of the gardens surrounding Jukia Park, overseeing the maintenance and health of the coffee plants and other vegetation. She has been tending to these plants and turning their garden into a paradise!
Jukia is interested to experiment with different processing techniques and fermentation extensively in the coming months.

 

CULTIVARS

Most of the coffee grown in the Alur Highlands of north-west Uganda is SL14, a variety developed by Scott Laboratories in Kenya and promoted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.  There is also some Bourbon, which comes from nearby DR Congo, where it dominates. 

elevation

1250 meters

NOTABLE

Jukia got an upgrade with an electronic color sorter helping them speed up the processing time yet it is doesn’t' replace the meticulous care these women offer to sort the final defects the machine misses. They have never had an office at Jukia factory until now, thanks to Grounded investment, they are now building a new two storey office that will also act as central meeting place, cupping lab and training facility.

 

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

2026 LANDED SAMPLES

Zombo- Jukia microstation - 72 hr fermented natural.

 

  • The price you pay for Jukia's naturals p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The microstation buys red cherries from the farmers. Jukia microstation is owned by Zombo and they mainly focus on processing the coffees that come in from the various microstations until they are export grade. Jukia also buys cherries from the farmers in the neighborhood. They specialize in fermenting the coffees and also experiment with other processing methods. Further, they also develop other grades of coffee that are lower in quality than specialty through sorting. These coffees allow Zombo to increase their offering and reduce the waste (coffees that would normally be discarded for not meeting quality requirements).

  • Zombo mills the coffee at Jukia hill and then sorts it to export grade. Further, they are also responsible for all the processes involved in exporting the coffee from Uganda to the Netherlands.It also includes their profits per Kg earned for this coffee.
    (Costs were €2,67 and profit was €2,54)

  • International shipping from Nebbi (Port of loading - Mombasa, Kenya) to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project. Another € 0.06 is included in the final price as part of the basic income project being carried out at Zombo coffee partners in cooperation with Eight Network and This Side Up. Read more about this project here

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Zombo. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Jukia’s coffee amongst your customers.

 

Collective Roots, Growing Futures

The micro‑station was established in 2015 by a diverse group of 300 youth, women, and men who came together with a shared mission: to achieve better prices and produce higher-quality coffee in larger volumes through collective effort, bringing the market closer to smallholders. United by the goal of promoting gender equality, they pooled their resources to learn good agronomic practices and build a supportive, cooperative community. Their aspirations include expanding membership to 1,000 farmers, acquiring transport, constructing new storage, fencing the facility, installing power for safety during coffee season, and one day offering member loans. Yet, they continue to face significant challenges: unpredictable weather affecting drying; distant members struggling to access the station; limited processing and storage space; insecurity due to lack of fencing and electricity; and water scarcity hindering processing tasks such as floating. Despite these hurdles, their motivation remains strong—fair prices and bonuses from Zombo Coffee Partners, practical knowledge gained at the station, strong social bonds, and the tangible improvements in their livelihoods keep them united. They grow coffee not only for its cultural and health value but also for financial security, household consumption, and as a climate-smart crop, given the shade trees that help adapt to environmental changes.

 

CULTIVARS

Most of the coffee grown in the Alur Highlands of north-west Uganda is SL14, a variety developed by Scott Laboratories in Kenya and promoted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.  There is also some Bourbon, which comes from nearby DR Congo, where it dominates. 

elevation

1506 meters

NOTABLE

Most farmers grow coffee since the income allows them to pay the school fees every year without fail. Working with Zombo ensures they get a good price for their coffees.

PROCESSING

  • When coffee is ready, farmers hand-pick only fully ripe cherries. These are placed on a quality table where overripe, diseased, or otherwise bad cherries are removed, and then the remaining cherries are weighed. Next, floating is used to separate quality cherries from floaters. After floating, the quality cherries are spread on drying tables and turned daily. Under normal conditions this takes about five days; during the rainy season, drying into naturals can take up to two weeks. Finally, once the cherries reach a moisture content of 13%, they are bagged and stored, ready for transport to Jukia.

 

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

2026 LANDED

Zombo - Culamuk - Fully Washed

 

  • The price you pay for Culamuk natural p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The microstation buys red cherries from the farmers. They process it and then send the dry coffee (in parchment form) to Zombo for final milling, sorting for it to be made to export grade. Farm gate in this case includes price paid to the farmer and the primary processing done by the microstation.


  • The microstation buys red cherries from the farmers. They process it and then send the dry coffee (in parchment form) to Zombo for final milling, sorting for it to be made to export grade. Farm gate in this case includes price paid to the farmer and the primary processing done by the microstation.


  • International shipping from Nebbi (Port of loading - Mombasa, Kenya) to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project.

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Zombo. € 1,34 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Culamuk coffee amongst your customers.