:fill(white):background_color(white)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ICA5CLEUF3M2HNL2VPX4KCPL2Q.jpg)
This is the story of an African entrepreneur's battle to establish a local African brand in the global market. Rugasira's dream was to bring high- quality coffee from the Rwenzori Mountains in the Kasese district of western Uganda to the shelves of western supermarkets. His Good African Coffee is built on the principle of empowering local coffee-growers, not only by paying them a fair price but also by investing in their education in agronomy and in community savings co-operatives. Rugasira, a committed Christian, needed all of his faith to succeed in getting Good African products into Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Tesco in the UK after many disappointments and rejections. His mantra is "trade not aid"; he is scathing about the uselessness of the billions in aid supplied to Africa while barriers to trade prevent the countries of the continent competing fairly. He is also dismissive of the Fairtrade Foundation as being not far from the charity model, doing nothing to change the dynamics of world trade that keep African countries poor.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/sandbox.irishtimes/5OB3DSIVAFDZJCTVH2S24A254Y.png)