Uganda’s coffee exports have continued to increase in both value and quantity, despite a ravaging pandemic, at the backdrop of adverse weather conditions and Covid-19 restrictions in the world’s biggest exporters like Brazil and supply disruptions around the world. Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) data shows that the country exported 6.55 million bags of coffee worth $657.23 million in the year to October 2021, compared with 5.41 million in the same period last year, earning $513.79 million. Next month, they project to export 500,000 bags as the main harvest season kicks off in the central and eastern parts of the country.
The increase in exports is attributed to government efforts in 2012 which saw millions of seedlings distributed to farmers to grow new bushes across the 98 coffee growing districts. “Increasing exports were due to newly planted coffee which started yielding supported by favourable weather. This was also complimented by a positive trend in global coffee prices,” the report reads.