The great Rwenzori red cherry campaign

When farmers have been picking coffee for decades, how do you convince them it's more worthwhile to pick red cherries during harvest time?

​This was the question Agri Evolve faced when they set out to improve coffee quality in the Rwenzori Mountains.

Money Talks

Schools in Uganda start at the beginning of the country’s main coffee harvest in September. At this time, families need to pay school fees for education materials and uniforms for their children.

But because it’s still early in the harvest season, many farming families haven’t yet received the income to cover these costs, and so they turn to buyers that offer pre-financing. These buyers are often based in Kasese main town, where they can travel to rural areas, pay farmers a lower rate for their crop, then return to the city to sell it on for profit.

Pre-financing can be challenging; however, Agri Evolve knew it would have to offer it to compete with existing buyers in the area. This need gave way to the creation of the Agri Partner: individuals who buy coffee on Agri Evolve’s behalf in exchange for a commission. By having Agri Partners across the mountains, Agri Evolve could establish themselves as a consistent presence and immediate source of income within these regions, incentivising farmers to wait for the crop to ripen and receive a good rate for their coffee.

Strip picking

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Inconvenient as it may be, coffee trees don't ripen uniformly. A tree may have an abundance of cherries, but they won't all turn red at the same time. Which is why, to create high-quality Arabica, the trees need to be hand-picked over the course of the harvest.

Back in the day farmers weren't paid more for selectively picking ripe cherries, so they typically waited until the tree was flush with fruit, then picked them all at once for drying and selling. Quick and simple, but most of the cherries harvested were underripe, and it didn't produce the kind of quality coffee Agri Evolve wanted to create to showcase the incredible potential of the Rwenzoris.​

Getting the word out

​To encourage farmers to pick ripe, Agri Evolve began offering considerably higher prices for red cherries. Incentives alone wouldn’t change decades of processing however; they soon realised they needed a secondary approach.

I was very fortunate to rejoin the team in 2017, when there was a significant drive to share Agri Evolve's intent: We want to buy red cherries!

I’d had no experience of ‘buying’. I’d only sat on the other side of the fence in a sales role, though strangely enough the campaign we planned had a similar approach: marketing to buy a product the same way you’d market and approach a customer to sell that product.

​Red cherries on your wrist

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​Jonny Rowland (Agri Evolve's founder) had the idea to create red bracelets, with the words ‘we only pick red cherries’ emblazoned across the surface. This would be our slogan for the campaign, and the bracelets themselves acted as a wearable reminder, one that you might see as you’re reaching to pick a cherry.

The local communities loved these bracelets; we had over a thousand made and couldn’t distribute them quickly enough!

We handed them out during roadshows, when farmers brought coffee to the station, and as the field team were out doing training/certification. While we never ‘measured’ the true effectiveness, I saw firsthand how well they were received, and how people took on board the messaging and campaign.

​Red cherries on the radio

​Agri Evolve sponsors the Kasese district radio station (Farmers Corner), which is dedicated to farming. For us, it was the perfect opportunity to talk about coffee prices and the services offered to farmers by Agri Evolve. During the campaign we decided to create an ad that could be run regularly, one that describes why picking only ripe coffee is so important.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, the team thought it would be a good idea for me to record the advert. ‘Speak slowly James’ was the key feedback, usually followed by a chorus of laughter.

To this day, I get sent this little soundtrack of my first and only radio appearance sent to me on whatsapp. I don’t think I’ll be rushing into a voice-over career. The Farmers Corner radio show played it every weekend, and Agri continued to sponsor it (I’ve not asked, nor do I want to know if I’m still the advert).

Red cherries on the road

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Another tactic we employed was inspired by local political drives, where candidates would drive in a motorcade through communities to generate excitement among their constituents.

At Agri Evolve we hired a set of speakers, hoisted them onto the back of a truck covered in our branding, and set out on a tour of the Rwenzoris. We drove into different regions, promoting our services, pushing the red cherry messaging and handing out bracelets and T-shirts. There was music, dancing, and genuine excitement for our presence in these communities.

What’s more, the team loved getting these organised and off the ground; we picked key areas up and down the Rwenzoris and covered them in the run-up to the start of the seasons. It raised morale for both farmers and the Agri Evolve team, plus it helped us identify where to set up buying stations and stores to collect coffee.

Red cherries together

Ultimately, word of mouth was the key to this campaign, but it was driven by Agri Evolve’s ability to execute everything they were offering these communities. The benefits they promoted were delivered upon in the form of immediate cash payments for farmers, a field team dedicated to mobilising coffee, and high altitude collections points so people didn’t have to walk miles downhill to sell their coffee.

Volumes grew considerably, and I firmly believe the reason we see so much more Rwenzori coffee available in the marketplace today is Agri Evolves dedication to their farming communities.

I’m talking about this campaign like it was in the past, but the fact is that it’s still very much ongoing: the desire to improve continuously, and the deep understanding of potential from all farming groups now transcends the Rwenzoris. The transformation is incredible to see.

It’s hard to put into words the scale at which Agri Evolve approached the campaign to improve quality in the Rwenzoris. Often, when you hear about plans to elevate quality in coffee-producing regions, it’s from a production standpoint. That is something Agri Evolve works on; however, there is also so much time and effort invested in these farming communities. The team is out on the ground, explaining why it’s so important to selectively pick ripe cherries and how it can earn them more money.

As Agri Evolve continues to open new buying centres across the Rwenzoris, as they continue to register new farmers, they are getting out there and engaging with the communities that they’re working with. This way, farmers don’t just know to pick red cherries, but understand why it’s being asked of them, and raising the quality of coffee in Uganda becomes a united effort.