Coffee research at Kituza has a fascinating history. Starting as a small garden within the forest of Kituza around 1917, NaCORI aspires to be a global institute leading in Robusta coffee research innovations. It is said that privately-owned coffee garden was later expanded by introducing several coffee clones with unique traits. These clones were being evaluated to get those that were suitable for growing in Buganda region. By 1923, it was a sizeable coffee farm that subsequently became a research unit by 1935 administratively hosted at Kawanda.
By 1996, it metamorphosed to an independent unit known as Coffee Research Centre (COREC), and later CORI (Coffee Research Institute), before becoming a Coffee Research Programme under the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in 2005.
Following the policy recommendations of the National Coffee Policy of 2013, NaCORI was established as a semi-autonomous National Agricultural Research Institute under National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO). NaCORI is the 7th National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) of NARO and the 16th Public Agricultural Research Institute (PARI).
Since 2014, when the Institute became a Public Agricultural Research Institute, NaCORI has generated diverse technologies and innovations that has increased coffee exports from 3.5 million bags in 2014 to the current 5.7 million bags. Recently the institute developed value added coffee and cocoa products that are behind the development of value addition Hubs. In addition, the institute is developing other value added products that have potential for commercialization, increasing employment opportunities for youth and women, and increased household income.
On August 8th 2024, NaCORI celebrated 10 years of coffee research innovations under the theme:
Ten Years of Technologies and Innovations for Enhanced Coffee, Cocoa Export and Industry Development.
The event was attended by various stakeholders and value chain actors including; farmers, processors, exporters, agricultural equipment suppliers, input suppliers, barista, coffee homes, dealer in complementary and supplementary coffee products. Other participants included: sports enthusiasts, coffee associated academy other research institutions, traders, policy makers and local leaders. During this event, the institute will also launch the revised National Coffee and cocoa Research and Development Agenda for the next 10 year and forge new partnerships for increased coffee and cocoa industrialization and export.