Uganda Bukonzo Dream Lot 8 Natural
The name ‘Bukonzo Dream’ originates from the Bukonzo tribe of Uganda. They are brave, friendly and welcoming people who dream of being able to provide better opportunities for each generation. The farmers have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and given the opportunity of producing a harvest which will give them a greater yield and ultimately a better return, they are willing to go extra lengths to ensure a fantastic crop.
Interview with Baluku Yonasani (2nd image)
‘My name is Baluku Yonasani, I am a model farmer and I coordinate the farmers in this area. I have 7 children. Coffee is the main cash crop but we also grow crops like matoke, beans, sweet potato, cassava, nuts, and some mangos and vanilla, we grow many crops.’
‘I welcome Agri Evolve. We learned that coffee is ripe when it is red and red cherries bring a higher price, so farmers are now happy because they get high prices. The other thing I have learned is that we have to keep our gardens clean. We have to keep our soil clean so chemicals cannot drain our soil.’
‘During my training, I tasted coffee for the first time and I understand now what good coffee tastes like.’
‘We have some diseases which are declining our quantity. So our yield is less than we expected. We have to wait for our field officers to advise us. Treatment of diseases is something we cannot solve ourselves, we can dig trances and prune, but the treatment of diseases is too difficult.’
‘The partnership is good for many people, also for the ones who are not in our system, because also other buyers now pay a higher price.’
‘In my leisure time, I join my friends and we sit and converse and joke. We take some little beer and some sodas, we have a good time. We do not have a beach to go 🙂 .’
Working with processing partner Agri Evolve, a Social Enterprise, enables farmers to improve the quality of the coffee being produced.Trust was the biggest obstacle when Agri Evolve first started trying to buy cherries from farmers and cooperatives in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda.
The typical approach to coffee in the region was always for farmers to process it themselves, then sell it on as DRUGAR (Dried Uganda Arabica), which Agri Evolve was already purchasing from them at their collection centres. But the team were looking to start buying coffee as freshly harvested cherries, then do the processing at their own facilities, ultimately allowing them more control over the final product.
To buy cherries however, Agri Evolve had to focus on building relationships with prominent members of local coffee-growing communities. These communities, the people that live on the slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains, are of the Bakonzo Tribe, and it is for them that Bukonzo Dream is named. Because without the Bakonzo people, there would be no Bukonzo Dream!
Process | Natural
Processing Partner | Agri Evolve
Region | Rwenzori Mountains
MASL | 1800 – 2000
Varietals | SL14 - SL28
AGRI EVOLVE
Founded in 2016, Agri Evolve was the result of an observation of the local coffee market: farmers had the coffee, but lacked proper harvesting and processing facilities. On top of this, traders in the area only payed low, cash-in-hand prices, leaving producers unable to improve their own product.
Agri Evolve emerged as an alternative practise, initially buying home-processed naturals while working on developing a rapport with local farmers. This was important for when they began establishing themselves as a place to sell unprocessed cherries for a fair market price, and people now knew they could rely on Agri Evolve for payment. Not only that, but the funds made from exportation were funnelled back into programs focusing on training, education, facilities, and equipment all for the farmers to use to increase their yield and profits.
Over the years, Agri Evolve have grown their sourcing across the 200km span of the Rwenzoris, having registered 23,885 farmers in their system (as of 2025), and now having their own milling and export facilities.