KAMPALA, UGANDA – Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze, has announced that the national coffee registration exercise is free of charge. The exercise, launched today at the Uganda Media Centre, aims to enhance sustainability, improve market access, and ensure compliance with international regulations.
Coffee is an important crop nationally and globally, with a global annual value of $465 billion and ranking as the world’s second-largest revenue earner after oil. Uganda is the 7th largest coffee producer globally and 2nd largest in Africa, with approximately 1.8 million smallholder farmers cultivating coffee on 353,907 hectares of land.
More than 9 million people in Uganda are estimated to derive their livelihood from coffee-related activities along the value chain. Notably, global demand has been growing at a rate of approximately 2% annually over the last 20 years.
Uganda’s coffee exports for the twelve months of the financial year 2023/24 totaled 6.13 million bags worth $1.14 billion, compared to 5.76 million bags worth $846.02 million in the previous year. This represents an increase of 6.33% and 35.29% in quantity and value, respectively.
Italy maintained the highest market share with 41.96%, followed by Germany with 10.55%, India with 7.41%, Sudan with 6.87%, and Spain with 5.40%. In the financial year 2023/24, the 10 major destinations of Uganda’s coffee took 5,390,551 bags, accounting for 87.94% of total exports.
Coffee exports to Africa amounted to 987,138 bags in the financial year 2023/24, accounting for 16% of total exports. African countries that imported Ugandan coffee included Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Europe remained the main destination for Uganda’s coffee in June 2023, with a 69% import share. In the financial year 2023/24, Europe imported 4,023,480 bags of coffee, representing 66%.
The European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), effective December 30, 2024, requires Uganda to prove its coffee is produced sustainably. The regulation targets seven commodities and their derived products, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, soya, wood, and rubber.
Minister Tumwebaze emphasized that the registration process is crucial for ensuring continued access to international markets and effective mapping of coffee farms. The exercise is being conducted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and partners.
A dedicated Technical Working Group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of EUDR regulations. This group comprises representatives from UCDA, MDAs, and the private sector. A Geospatial Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System and Farmer Registration Application has been developed.
The innovative system will capture geolocation data for all production plots where coffee or related products are cultivated. A team of enumerators will carry out the registration process on behalf of UCDA and industry players.
All coffee value chain actors, including farmers, traders, processors, etc., will be registered. The enumerators will record essential details of the value chain actors, such as their name, farm name and location, type of coffee grown/produced, among others.
In addition, enumerators will map farms/gardens by recording their GPS coordinates. UCDA will store and manage the data collected in partnership with NITA(U) and will ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act during the collection, storage, and management.
Minister Tumwebaze appealed to all leaders, coffee value chain actors, and district local government leaders to support this registration exercise. He emphasized that this is a win for all.
Further appeal goes to all those who intend to invest in the agriculture sector, particularly farming, to ensure that moving forward, all agriculture expansion adopts sustainable production practices that preserve the environment.
The government has allocated resources for registration, with funding support from Development Partners (aBi Development and UNDP) and mobilization efforts by Civil Society organizations.