Board

Mr. Magoola Richard, 54, brings a wealth of experience to his role as Board Chairman of the Cocoa Exporters Association Uganda Ltd (CEAU). He joined the cocoa sector 22 years ago while working with ESCO, a company already established in cocoa export.

Richard’s extensive 12-year career illustrates a shift from his foundational background in accounting and finance to a deeply collaborative, field-oriented form of leadership—one focused squarely on the welfare of cocoa farmers and traders. His commitment to seeing farmers grow and improve their standard of living remains the core motivation driving his work in the industry.

Among his most significant career achievements is penetrating the market with limited funds and ultimately leading ESCO to be “on top” throughout the years. This experience taught him the value of resilience and strategic execution. One of his most difficult professional challenges involved managing delayed credit payments, a hurdle he overcame by building and maintaining strong trust within the company. These experiences see CEAU receiving Richard with an endowed leadership style characterized by resilience in the face of adversity.

Although CEAU is a new association, Richard describes its potential as “ready to move mountains.” He is confident that within the next three to five years, the association will become the path for all exporters. He identifies pressing challenges facing the cocoa industry, including price fluctuations and cocoa wilt, and advocates for collaborative solutions rather than top-down directives.

Richard emphasizes the need to sensitize and train cocoa farmers to understand international market pricing and adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). His vision for the cocoa sector over the next five to ten years is ambitious: increasing national production to approximately 300,000 metric tons through extensive training and sustained support in GAP.

He calls on all cocoa exporters to collaboratively strengthen exporter–farmer relationships, citing ESCO, the company where he works, which is determined to provide assistance through field officers—particularly in supporting ongoing registration processes for the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

Richard’s advice to upcoming cocoa exporters and farmers is simple yet crucial: they need to be flexible.

His inspirational slogan perfectly encapsulates his career philosophy:
“Sowing Seeds, Growing Futures.”