Uganda Ranked Africa’s No.1 Coffee Exporter

Uganda is the leading coffee exporter in Africa, beating Ethiopia the continent’s leading producer in the region. Ethiopia produced more but exported less because a large part of its output is consumed locally unlike in Uganda where consumption is less than 2 percent.

Latest information from the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) shows that in the last six-months into the Coffee Calender (October-March), Uganda was the largest exporter in Africa, at 1.6 million bags, followed by Ethiopia which exported 1.4 million bags.
“Because of this, Africa has increased its share of world exports to 9.7 per cent compared with 8 per cent for the first six months of 2011/12,” the report said.

Experts in the coffee industry say Uganda’s performance means that farmers need to produce more so that they continue retaining this position and improve their incomes further.
Mr Henry Ngabirano, the executive director Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), commenting about this performance, said: “To occupy this position, Uganda has to continue producing more coffee.”

The report further indicates that total exports by Africa in this time period increased by 30.2 per cent compared to the previous year to reach 5.4 million bags, its highest level since 2002/03.

Total exports
Total exports by all exporting countries reached 56.1 million bags between October 2012 and March 2013, a 7 per cent increase on the same period last year and an all-time record volume for the first half of the coffee year.
“This increase has been driven largely by strong growth in shipments of Robustas, which amounted to 22.2 million bags in 2012/13, a 15 per cent increase on the same period in 2011/12,” the report explains further.