Lot H3: Masha Quality Holdings

Producer Story:

I am the Founder and Executive Director, it is a family founded female led private limited company legally registered. We have four children my husband is a medical doctor currently working with USAID Uganda and everybody in the family is very passionate about coffee. My husband and I grew up in families that were growing coffee and we were able to go to school because of coffee which was being done traditonally. When we got married, we decided to take on coffee farming but preferred to do it as a business despite our medical background. We planted our very first coffees in 2001, and we continued to add in the different gardens til we have made about 20 acres. The oldest trees are 20 years and the youngest are a year old. We have intercropped these with bananas, trees and do more of slashing than digging. We also practice alot of soil conservation because of the terrain by digging trenches, mulching and also enrich the soil by planting short term legumous crops like beans and irish. We work mainly with women and youth on the farm and the numbers increase during harvest season. We planted SL14, and SL28 as these are the recommended for our region. The processing methods we use are: washed specialty, naturals through fermentation and honey processing through drip fermentation. Then we dry all these under the solar dryer for controlled heat and maintenance of quality. The achievement of being one of the best of the pearl coffee has greatly inspired us to do more. We have also managed to mobilize and convince many farmers to focus on quality coffee production to process specialty from this region. What is important to us is seeing our commmunity members improving their household income and quality of life through coffee farming (financial liberation-our goal)

Learn more at: www.mashacoffee.com