NWCA Kola Coffee Tour
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 15/Jul/2010 14:28, 34 days ago
I had the opportunity to visit the North West Cooperative Association today with Michelle, Hein, Dave and Ginette (all VSO volunteers). This is a cooperative society in Bamenda, in the Northwest province of Cameroon, representing over 35,000 individual small holding coffee farmers.Michelle checking out the coffee in the labThe NWCA is administered using a three-tier system;1. The base and primary level consists of the Cooperative Primary Marketing Society (CPMS). There are about 43 of these societies at this level and it is at this stage that the coffee beans are purchased from the individual farmers.2. The Secondary Cooperative Unions (SCU), of which there are about 7. At this intermediate stage, the coffee which is collected at the primary level is processed and made ready for delivery to the umbrella body which is the NWCA. It is the NWCA that then collects the processed beans, finds a market for them, and gets the products to the ports.3. The NWCA is the overall coordinator and centerpiece of the entire structure. Amongst other things, it raises funds to purchase the beans (principally through bank loans), and organizes educational and training sessions for the individual farmers on how they can best improve their products. Its objectives are to enhance the production, processing, and marketing of agricultural products of the affiliated Cooperative Unions.The roasting machineThe NWCA’s farmers grow 2 types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica makes up about 80% of the total output with Robusta forming about 20%. Although NWCA coffee is organic and fair trade, the cooperative finds the process to get the certification time-intensive and costly and therefore to date has beenunable to receive fair trade certification for their product.The warehouseThe NWCA Kola Coffee plant is impressive with large warehouses and equipment, however the warehouses are virtually empty and the equipment is deteriorating due to lack of use. In the 1970s and 1980s the NWCA exported about 11,000 tonnes of coffee annually. Last year they exported 500 tonnes, a significant reduction. What led to this dramatic reduction? The NWCA blames the liberalization programs in the 90s. Between the 1978 and 1991 the NWCA operated as a field agent of the National Produce Marketing Board, a centrally administered purchasing and marketing organization that enjoyed legal monopoly powers in the NW province. Over the period 1991-1994, the government of Cameroon instituted several major institutional and policy innovations in a process of market liberalization. In 1991 the Marketing Board officially disbanded The NWCA was privatized and obtained rights to market coffee internationally but also became responsible for its financial sustainability, and primary societies became the residual claimant to any profits from coffee sales.The nursery with seedlingsIn 1991, USAID established a fund for NWCA using project funds from the Cameroon government and USAID to fill the void left when the Marketing Board and its financing of NWCA collapsed. In 1992, fund levels were sufficient so that NWCA was able to purchase the majority of the harvest prior to the onset of the rainy season. However, cash flow problems were severe during the peak harvest period, raising questions about farmers’ incentives to maintain coffee quality. Since then the NWCA has had difficulties in securing financing. To aggravate the situation, in 1994 the government introduced autonomous pricing arrangements within the NWCA hierarchy. Farmers still received a minimum price, and the primary societies remained the claimants to any residual profits realized once the coffee is sold on the world markets. The NWCA and the union cooperatives negotiated fees for their services. Primary societies unhappy with union charges could choose not to sell their coffee that year, or sell it to other union cooperatives.What can be done to help the NWCA? Although many development organizations have come in to help with organizational development and marketing, the NWCA really needs help finding financing and investors. Michelle and Hein did their part today by eating lunch and buying some coffee but if you have any other ideas of how to help NWCA email me.Coffee (not yet ripe)