Sucafina: ensuring sustainable coffee cultivation

Sucafina is a leading sustainable coffee producer covering the entire range of operations from Farm to Roaster. The coffee major has 1031 employees across 29 countries. Their extensive supply chains stretch from producer-facing export operations to destination sales offices worldwide.

Business challenges

Pre-harvest (cultivation and sales) and post-harvest (processing and storage) details were recorded on different systems, leading to discrepancies in data storage and analysis
Lack of accurate means to geotag plots
Need for a centralized system to send advisories to farmers on weather and PoPs (package of practices)
Lack of visibility on the activities of the field staff
Difficulty in monitoring the quantity of agrochemicals used by farmers
Ineffective means to manage farmer certifications
No means to trace the farm/farmer of produce after sales

How Cropin helped

Cropin partnered with the client to support its coffee sustainability plan for projects in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Through Cropin Grow (SmartFarm), the client digitized farm and farmer data, geotagged plots, and helped track activities of field agents. It shared package of practices with farmers and enabled monitoring of Agri-inputs used. Cropin also extended support with inventory management.

Cropin’s intervention helped with

Remote management of 93,000+ plots and audit of 60,000+ hectares of coffee plantations across Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
85+ field staffers digitally captured data of over 30,000 farmers and their cultivated land.
Well-planned, documented, and evidence-based farmer training.
Integrated an SMS option to mobilize farmers and send pricing information when the coffee season begins.
Centralized platform to accurately track and capture data.
Monitoring of field activities for intensive quality control.
Configuring the best package of practices and creating a detailed activity plan based on the growth cycle.