(4 minutes read)
· Buoyed by record production of coffee, Uganda managed to up its coffee exports. It grew by 972,962 bags in 2020, a 22 percent increase as against 2019
· Analysts attribute to the hike in exports to increased
production combined with new acreage bought under coffee cultivation and of course a conductive weather
· Europe is the main destination for Uganda’s coffees with a 63 percent import share
Buoyed by record production of coffee, Uganda managed to up its coffee exports. It grew by 972,962 bags in 2020, a 22 percent increase as against 2019. Significantly, the production is the highest since 1991, as revealed by Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), the agency responsible for regulating and marketing the crop.
According the the UCDA for the calendar year January 2020 to December 2020 exports in quantitative terms perked to 5,492,525 60-kilo bags. In value terms, the Southern African country earned US$515.94 million from the exports as against 4,519,563 bags, fetching US $436.54 million in 2019. While in quantity terms increases in exports was at 22%, in value terms it went up by 18% (dollar terms). The performance during December last year export was appreciable at 422,922 60-kilo
bags worth US$37.78m.
Analysts attribute the hike in exports to increased production combined with new acreage bought under coffee cultivation and of course a conductive weather. The flip side is that Uganda exports coffee mostly in the raw form. However, of late, there is an increasing awareness among the farmers and authorities about value adding, which can fetch better prices in the international market. Mostly, two types of coffee are grown in the country -Robusta and Arabica. Coffee cultivation is mostly undertaken in the central, eastern, and western regions of the country. Another feature is that most of the cultivation is undertaken by the small farmers.
Ugandan coffee is mostly exported to Italy followed by Germany, Sudan, Belgium, and India. A lion’s share of Ugandan coffee is imported by Europe. A good quantity of Ugandan coffee is marketed within Africa. The major consuming countries in the continent are Sudan, Morocco, Kenya, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and South Sudan.
Europe is the main destination for Uganda’s coffees with a 63 percent import share. A viral disease in the early 2000’s had wiped out the coffee tress in Uganda. That compelled agriculture scientists in the country to breed new varieties that can withstand the viral attack. Uganda has now set an ambitious target to increase exports of the crop to 20 million bags by 2025 and to augment production to register a quantum jump.
