Coffee now so expensive that farms are becoming crime scenes

High prices in Africa’s No. 2 grower have made coffee a significant theft target, joining other commodities such as cocoa and vanilla

Masaka, Uganda | AGENCIES | To stop his coffee crops being stolen yet again, Ugandan farmer Charles Waliggo has been waking during the night to patrol his plot. Others are being urged to turn to dogs to guard plantations — or even bees.

The security measures are necessary to stop thieves snatching unharvested beans straight from trees under cover of darkness, a problem that has become much more serious as prices soar. Two of the country’s farming associations say coffee theft has hit unprecedented levels this year.

It’s another example of how food and drink have become lucrative targets for criminals. In recent years, rising prices and a cost-of-living crisis sparked a string of thefts of everything from African cocoa beans and Spanish olive oil to ham and donuts. Coffee has drawn attention as drought in key grower Vietnam and strong demand squeezed global supply and made it much more expensive.

The raids are “due to the fact that prices of coffee have gone higher than before,” said Ronald Buule, executive director of Uganda’s Central Coffee Farmers Association, known as CECOFA. The now common problem in the world’s fifth-biggest bean exporter “has created insecurity in coffee farms,” he said.

Global prices of robusta coffee — favored for instant drinks — hit the highest since the 1970s this year, raising costs for roasters and consumers. In Uganda, farm-gate prices for unshelled robusta known as Kiboko jumped as much as 65% since the start of the year to a record 7,000 shillings ($1.89) per kilogram, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.

High prices in Africa’s No. 2 grower have made coffee a significant theft target, joining other commodities such as cocoa and vanilla, according to Tony Mugoya, the executive director of Uganda Coffee Farmers Alliance.

It’s hard to quantify the size of the problem, because the police force hasn’t compiled data on cases dealt with by local authorities and the government hasn’t published coffee-theft statistics. But CECOFA and the UCFA say crime is much higher than in previous years.

That’s adding to a rise in food crime. Food and beverages accounted for more than a fifth of all products stolen globally last year, up from 17% in 2022, according to the British Standards Institution.

Some Ugandan farmers suspect many thefts are committed by local people, often youths, who then sell the beans into the supply chain. The looters — who sometimes damage trees in the process — are not only hurting farmers’ income, but also threatening Uganda’s efforts to boost output in the coming years.

Security Measures

A victim several times, Waliggo woke up most nights during the recently ended harvest to check his crops in Mayirikiti in the central region. About a dozen farms in the village were targeted in the latest harvest period, according to Ibra Ssemanda, a local government official.

During the harvest season CECOFA’s Buule, who’s also a farmer, has himself had to hire 10 night guards to stay at his two plantations that cover a total of more than 40 acres (16 hectares).

The association recommends that growers invest in fencing, security guards and dogs, and bees to fight crime. More farmers have been keeping apiaries to aid pollination, but the idea is that they will now also scare away thieves worried about being stung if they upset hives.

Some coffee communities are taking other steps to make it harder to profit from crime. In the western region district of Kakumiro, children aren’t allowed to sell beans to middlemen because they can be taken advantage of by thieves, said Taddewo Senyonyi, a farmer who’s another victim.

The problem is that many smallholders who live near the poverty line can’t afford the extra security expense. For buyers, quality can suffer if thieves take cherries that aren’t fully ripe. Plus, some rip off branches to strip beans away from farms, hurting future productivity of trees.

Crime is becoming a bigger problem at a time when the government is trying to boost output and exports. It has distributed millions of free seedlings in recent years to help expand production to 20 million bags by 2030, from less than 7 million bags now as estimated by the US government.

That target could become even more ambitious if thefts keep threatening productivity.

“Certainly thefts will discourage efforts by farmers from investing if something is not done,” said Richard Muganzi, sales and marketing manager at the Masaka Cooperative Union, which has about 100,000 members.