Uganda’s coffee exports to China surged fivefold in August compared to the previous month, according to a report by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA). The UCDA’s latest report revealed that coffee exports to China increased from 2,100 bags in July to 11,580 bags between September 2023 and August 2024 which is worth 1.35 billion U.S. dollars.
The coffee industry in Uganda has failed to flourish beyond low-value bean harvesting and drying, whilst over the past 15 years. Reports show productivity has stagnated at around 3-4 million bags annually and smallholder farmers are therefore unable to lift themselves out of poverty . However, recently there has been an extra push by the government to develop coffee exports, with an export goal of 20 million 60 kg bags annually by 2030 . For this to be achievable, the industry requires investments in productivity, alongside tapping into growing demand in emerging consumer markets, like China who till date has doubled exports to 1.35 billion US dollars.
We are registering our farmers, we are trying to show evidence backed by data from the farms to the export markets that our farmers and our farms are compliant, such that our coffee continues to be bought at premium prices.
FRANK TUMWEBAZE, Minister of Agriculture
The Ugandan government and the Ugandan Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) have developed a five-year ‘coffee roadmap’, which aims to establish cooperative partnerships with China to drive demand, develop our value-added capacity and increase our coffee value by up to 15%. So far, the traditional kingdom of Buganda has been authorized to ship coffee beans to China, one of the world’s biggest markets.
The market is picking up very fast, and I want to say the coffee we are supplying to China is not even enough, so we have to work backward and look for more coffee to satisfy this kind of market that we have.
KIRONDE CHARLES, CEO Mwanyi Terimba
The UCDA is striving to brand and promote our high-quality coffee across the world. Despite being the world’s eighth-largest coffee producer in 2019, Ugandan coffee is still relatively unknown, as most of our coffee exports are unbranded and become part of own-label supermarket blends, preventing end-consumer awareness of our country’s rich and unique blends.