The Uganda Coffee Development Authority is targeting new markets to grow its exports to 15 per cent, a fivefold increase of the country’s share on the global market.
Uganda Coffee Development Authority Managing Director, Emmanuel Iyamulemye Niyibigira, says there is high demand for Ugandan coffee in China, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa.
“With these markets, we would be growing our global coffee exports from 3 per cent now to 15 per cent — hopefully,” Mr Iyamulemye said on the sidelines of the 16th African Fine Coffee Association (AFCA) conference in Kampala recently.
Niyibigira however notes that despite exporting a record 4.6 million 60kg bags of green coffee, and earning $545 million last year, for years the country’s share of exports on the global market has stagnated at 3 per cent.
Uganda is working hard on measures to increase output to an ambitious 20 million bags by 2025, which could inch closer to the share of power houses like Vietnam, Colombia and Honduras on the global export market.
