Who we are:
Gumutindo is an organisation of smallholder coffee farmers
who produce washed arabica coffee for the specialty coffee
market. We live and work on the misty ridges and in the
lush upland valleys of Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano on
the eastern border of Uganda.
Our quality:
There have been coffee farmers on Mount Elgon since 1900,
and a large co-operative union has existed since 1950. But
the union used to bulk all the farmers’ coffee together
and did not distinguish the excellent from the average or
even the bad. Meanwhile the specialty and gourmet segments
of the coffee market were demanding better qualities and
offering higher prices. So in 1998 a group of us got together
to market our coffee independently. The word Gumutindo means
“excellent quality” in our local language and
the highest quality is what we constantly strive for when
we grow, harvest, process and export our coffee.
Our history:
At first we were just a group of farmers in an unregistered
association, but we made quick progress. In 2002 we obtained
organic certification for most of our coffee. In 2003 we
were registered as a new co-operative union, with the aim
of making sustainable improvements to the livelihoods of
our members by selling their fairtrade and organic coffee
in the most advantageous markets. The same year we obtained
our own export license for the first time. In 2004 we were
certified as a fairtrade small producer organisation under
international fairtrade standards. In 2005 we bought our
own premises and began to operate as a genuinely independent
farmer business.
Organic and Fairtrade certifications:
We have maintained both of our certifications as we have
expanded, from the original 200 individual farmers scattered
across the mountain to the current 7,000 farmers organised
in 11 local societies. All our coffee is fairtrade certified
and currently more than 90% is organic certified. Organic
production makes sense to us because:
• it is the natural thing to: it is how our parents
farmed
• it is the right thing to do: it protects Mount Elgon’s
fragile ecosystem
• it gives the best return: good husbandry improves
yields with no expensive artificial fertilisers
• it is what our customers and our consumers want
