How a family has turned cocoa beans into chocolate

Jovan Ssekindi harvests cocoa beans from the 600-acre farm in Mukono. The cocoa beans are dried before they are taken to a processing plant where they are turned into chocolate. Right: Stephen Sembuya nibbles at a chocolate bar made from the processing firm. PHOTO BY DOMINIC BUKENYA 

By  Dorothy Nakaweesi

In Summary

Value addition. After the death of the late Yafesi Magulu in the 80s, the founder of Magulu Cocoa Farm in Mukono, his two grandsons found it worthwhile to build on his legacy. One of them manages the farm while the other uses the same raw material—cocoa—to process chocolate bars, cocoa powder and cocoa butter.

 

It is probably the country’s biggest cocoa farm standing on more than 600 acres of land.

Located about 64 kilometres, off Mukono Katosi road in Lugonjo village-Nkonkonjeru Sub-county in Buikwe District, the farm is well-known by residents in this area where cocoa once prospered as a cash crop.

Magulu Cocoa Farm was established by the late Yafesi Magulu, in the 1940s. Initially, it started off as a banana plantation until the 1950s when cocoa was introduced into the country as one of the cash crops.

Edward Mubiru, the manager of the farm and grandson of late Magulu shares: “Our grandfather was inspired to start planting cocoa within banana plantations when the crop was introduced into the country.”

He approached the forestry department and got a lease to expand into the forest reserve. He was advised to plant trees which would increase the forest cover and at the same time act as shades for cocoa since the commodity thrives under the shade.

“Our grandfather loved cocoa so much and wanted it to succeed in Uganda. So, he travelled to Ghana and Ivory Coast, the leading producers in the World, among others, to seek for knowledge on how to grow cocoa and this helped him grow his farm,” Mr Mubiru narrates.

Magulu passes on
However, in the late 80s, due to old age that comes with illnesses, Magulu became weak and was forced out of the business, transferring responsibility to his sons to manage the farm.

His son Paul Wasswa who owned Kiwa Industries took over management but later passed on.
Then his brother Christopher Ssembuya of Sembule Steel Mills took over management of the business in the early 90s when Magulu succumbed to illnesses and eventually passed on.

However, due to the multiple challenges Ssembuya was going through with his company Ssembule, the farm was neglected for some years because no one was willing or had time to take control.

“The farm was dilapidated for some years until the family gave me the responsibility to be the caretaker then,” Mubiru adds.

After takeover
In 2011, when Mubiru took over the management of the farm, his major task was to rehabilitate the crop.

He had to deal with residents who had turned the farm into a source of timber through cutting trees which provided shelter to the cocoa and this saw many cocoa plants destroyed.

Currently, Mubiru employes 50 people to prune, weed and harvest the crop.

His biggest challenge is the little manpower for the farm to operate at full capacity.

“Our aim is to increase on the number of employees to reach at least 300. That’s when we shall be able to operate at full capacity,” Mubiru added.