Análisis del modelo de negocio inclusivo: Touton, Uganda

Como empresa comercial francesa líder, Touton está profundizando su participación en los países productores de materias primas mediante el desarrollo de actividades de abastecimiento directo y, cuando es posible, de procesamiento. Por ello, Touton Uganda Ltd., fundada en 2025, tiene como objetivo ofrecer cacao, café, vainilla y otros ingredientes naturales de calidad y de origen responsable .

Touton Uganda trabaja con pequeños productores de café en la región de las montañas Rwenzori para mejorar su productividad y su resiliencia climática. La asociación no solo garantiza el suministro de café, sino que también promueve la adopción de la agricultura regenerativa (AR) a través, por ejemplo, de la diversificación de cultivos.

Este análisis de negocios inclusivos reflexiona sobre la pregunta : ¿Cómo puede Touton asegurar y aumentar su volumen de café, cacao, vainilla y chile Bird Eyed de origen sostenible en Uganda mediante la prestación de servicios comercialmente viables, que permitan a los agricultores mejorar sus medios de vida y adoptar prácticas agrícolas regenerativas, reconociendo al mismo tiempo los desarrollos actuales en la cadena de valor?

¿Qué es un análisis empresarial que incluya a los pequeños productores?

Las recomendaciones clave incluyen:

1.  The adoption of the EU Due Diligence Regulation (EUDR) requires all players in Uganda coffee value chain to collaborate in solving data collection, management, and ownership challenges while seeking ways to benefit farmers. Touton should seek collaboration with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), coffee exporters, and other value chain players, potentially co-steered by an organization like IDH, to assess, design, implement, and evaluate approaches to adopt the EUDR regulation.
2. The push towards direct sourcing, partly driven by the EUDR, requires Touton to develop strategies to screen, onboard, segment, incentivize, and graduate middlemen into its direct sourcing structure. This allows quick scaling and to leverages their knowledge and expertise.
   
3.  Adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and diversifying with vanilla and cocoa requires farmers to have access to long-term financial support with 5-year tenure loans of $400/farmer, with a sufficient grace period. Touton should explore ways to accelerate access to larger financial tickets sizes through Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) and establish tri-party agreement with Impact Investors, Commercial Banks, and Input providers.
   
4.  Producer Organisations (POs) are pivotal in the direct sourcing model, increasing the effectiveness of sourcing diversified produce from farmers. Touton needs to develop and implement strategies to build maturity and sustainability of all service provision vehicles (POs, agripreneur, agronomists) and conduct regular gap assessments and provide fit-for-purpose capacity building.
   
5. While transitioning to direct sourcing through POs may increase sourcing costs, the potential to secure and increase the volume of high-quality quality sustainably grown Arabica coffee potentially might outweigh these costs. Touton should isolate and monitor the additional benefits of direct sourcing, such as improved quality, sustainability, and increased farmer loyalty, against the sourcing costs to make strategic decisions on replicating the direct structure in other regions in Uganda.