1 of 3
Uganda is home to over 1.7 million coffee producing properties, most of which are tiny small-holders dedicated to growing robusta coffee. (Photo by Tridge Company)
2 of 3
Coffee production in Uganda surged to a historic high of 6 million 60-kilogram bags in the recently completed 2020-21 crop cycle which also registered record exports. (Photo by Uganda Coffee Development Authority)
3 of 3
Uganda's is known to the global export market as a top-quality producer of both robusta and arabica beans and started an ambitious expansion program in 2012 (Photo by Uganda Coffee Development Authority)
Coffee production in East African grower Uganda in the new 2021-22 crop cycle that started on Oct. 1, will reach 5.95 million 60-kilogram bags, private and public coffee industry officials said this week. If the new harvest succeeds reaching this number it will be a tad down from output in Uganda’s previous 2020-21 cycle (Oct-Sep) in which total production reached 6 million bags, but up 9.6% on the last harvest that ended at 5.475 million bags, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Physical harvesting of the new crop starts in earnest during the month of November and the news of Uganda's latest production figures represent a rare success story of expansion of a coffee sector at a time most of the world’s coffee growing nations see production stagnated at levels often going over 25-30 years back in history.
The surge to new highs in Ugandan coffee production comes thanks to an official program for expanding output first launched in 2012 by the official Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and which in the last 3-4 years started showing results.
“The recent export figures are the highest volumes Uganda has recorded in history and it is because of the massive planting campaigns which UCDA together with other stakeholders in the coffee industry have implemented in the last years,” a spokesman at the UCDA told STiR Coffee and Tea in an interview. Based on a double focus of expanding production both through the renovation by replanting of old trees as well as cultivating new areas, UCDA distributed “millions of coffee seedlings to farmers” across all 98 coffee growing districts in the East African country, which for the most part consist of robusta coffee (of the Coffea canephora species) but also is home to smaller areas that grow Coffea arabica.
In 2017, UCDA launched what is has named “The Coffee Road Map” through which the ambitious goal is to see total national production by 2025-2030 rise to 20 million bags, of which 80% is projected to come from increased productivity from yields rising 3-4 times from today’s levels and 20% of new output will come from new land, according to UCDA documents reviewed by STiR.
Exports from Uganda surged 21.1% to a historic high of 6.49 million bags in the now completed 2020-21 crop cycle, from 5.36 million bags exported in the previous cycle, USDA said in a recent report but local exporters said the 2020-21 figure included carry-over stocks of about 400,000 bags. USDA said exports from Uganda in the 2020-21 cycle ended at 5.9 million bags, up 10.3% from 5.35 million the previous year but forecast to fall to 5.8 million bags in 2021-22.
“The story is very exciting and pleasing about the increase in the exports and the revenues the country is getting,” Uganda’s Agriculture Minister Fred Bwino Kyakulaga said at a recent event hosted by UCDA according to a press release. “The developments in the sector are a great achievement.”
In the late-1990s, UCDA announced what was then an ambitious plan to expand production to 5 million bags from annual output which during the last half of that period reached between 2.8 million and 3.4 million bags. For the next two decades from 1994-2014 Uganda’s coffee production, however, remained stagnated in the same 3.2-3.4 million range, even falling to as low as 2.175 million bags in 2005-06 as coffee wilt disease cause severe damage to the country’s robusta coffee park. But by 2014-2015 the first results of the new replanting programs emerged and from then until now output has risen steadily in line with Uganda’s goal to rise in the ranks of the world’s top 10 growers and exporting countries.
“Farmers have become more organized and handling coffee as a business,” said Joseph Nkandu, executive director of the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises, in an article published by local news magazine African News. “When they get money, they re-invest it. That is why we have seen new crop coming into production.”