Hon. Fred Kyakulaga Bwino, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has urged Uganda’s representatives at Expo 2020 in Dubai to pursue the leads generated to the end to ensure the country benefits from the experience of participating in the six-month long event.

The Minister was in Dubai to attend the Agricultural Thematic Week at Expo 2020. He appreciated the stakeholders present and commended them highly for representing Uganda in their different capacities and urged them to pick lessons they can use to transform their respective sectors back home.

“We should not just come to the Expo, stay for six months and go back [with nothing to show for it],” he told stakeholders at the Uganda pavilion. “We should at our various levels seriously think how much we can emulate this and benefit from it; how much was invested and how much has been recovered.”

Expo 2020 began on 1^st October 2021 and will run till 31^st March 2022.

According to Dr. Sam Omara, the Deputy Commissioner General of the Uganda pavilion, the country has exceeded its target of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth 4 billion shillings to Uganda by the end of the expo.

“The target of our participation at Expo 2020 was to attract FDI worth 4 billion shillings to Uganda by the end of the 6 months but as I speak now we have so far surpassed that by over 500 million shillings,” Dr. Omara said.

He revealed that there are several projects still underway and the figure is likely to go higher.

The most sought after agricultural products according to the pavilion director, Mr. J. B. Lwere, are coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, among others. The exposure Uganda coffee has received at Expo 2020 is expected to increase exports to the region with several expressions of interest being received at the pavilion daily.

Coffee exports to the Middle East have been on the rise. In FY 2020/21, Uganda exported 127,519 60 kg bags of coffee compared to 82,249 bags the previous year.

According to Uganda Coffee Development Authority’s representative at the pavilion, Ms. Judith Engena, visitors appreciate Uganda’s coffee and have given it positive reviews. Engena said they have received several expressions of interest in both Arabica and Robusta coffee which they believe will translate into actual sales.

The Minister encouraged all present to work together to raise the country’s flag and move the nation forward and urged the stakeholders to ensure consistency in quality, quantity and volume of their products.

“The [export] opportunities are immense; we simply cannot exhaust the demand. The issues are well articulated regarding consistency in value and on volumes,” the Minister stated before adding, “The key driver in this is the Government. We will come up with a way to handle the entire value chain and segment the various markets.”

Picking up on issues raised in the meeting regarding quality and product packaging, Onzimai of PSFU informed the meeting that his organisation can provide solutions if they have the necessary information on what is required. He suggested that a team made up of representatives from the different stakeholders be commissioned to solve non-capital expenditure (non-CAPEX) issues.

“We have latitude to address non-CAPEX issues such as designing packaging, for companies to get certifications to access the markets, bringing products to the markets and building market linkages,” Onzimai said.

Also present at the meeting were Ambassador Elly Kamahungye Kafeero and Brain Mwanika from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Onzimai, an investment specialist from Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Lawrence Oketcho the director trade information at Uganda Export Promotions Board, private sector players and a team from Uganda Coffee Development Authority.

Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has launched a campaign to stump old coffee trees and rehabilitate abandoned coffee gardens across the country to help increase productivity. 

Under the campaign, UCDA will train farmers on good agricultural practices (GAPS) such as stumping overgrown coffee trees to increase their yield. The Authority will also distribute fertilizers to coffee farmers who comply. 

The campaign titled “Renovate and Rehabilitate your Coffee; Every Tree Counts” was launched on December 10, 2020, at the annual coffee show held at the Kichwamba sub-county headquarters in Rubirizi district. 

The coffee show was organised by Café Africa, aBi Development and UCDA together with Rubirizi District local government. It brought together coffee farmers from western Uganda to learn, share experiences, and collectively find solutions affecting coffee farmers in the region. Unlike the coffee shows held in the past, this one was low key as the organisers endeavoured to adhere to the guidelines for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

UCDA set up a demonstration plot of 100 Arabica coffee trees where good agricultural practices were demonstrated to participants. The practices included the correct spacing for Arabica and Robusta coffee, how to dig a hole to plant the seedling in, manure application, shade provision, watering, bending a coffee tree to increase productivity, mulching, soil and water conservation, pest and disease identification and control, weed management, fertilizer application, stumping and harvesting.

“After the training, the farmers realised that tall, old coffee trees cannot yield much, and they even make it difficult to carry out some activities such as picking, spraying and pest identification,” Emily Asiimwe, UCDA Regional Coffee Extension Officer said.

“We have trained the farmers on how to stump their coffee trees. This is in line with the campaign we have launched which calls on farmers to renovate and rehabilitate their coffee because every tree counts," she added. 

For the past couple of years, coffee farmers across the country have complained of low soil fertility levels which affect the amount of coffee they harvest every season.

To address this concern, UCDA developed a programme to support coffee farmers with fertilizers. The programme is in line with the fourth initiative of the Coffee Roadmap. The initiative aims to strengthen farmer organisations and producer cooperatives. By distributing fertilizers in the nationwide programme, UCDA aims to support farmers to increase productivity.

Last financial year, UCDA imported 100,000 bags of 25kg each of Fertiplus, an organic fertilizer, and conducted a pilot study before rolling out the national programme to coffee farmers organized in cooperatives or farmer organisations across the country.

During the show, farmers also called on UCDA to support them with pesticides and fungicides to use in the control of coffee pests and diseases most especially black coffee twig borer (BCTB), root mealy bugs, scales, coffee wilt disease (CWD), coffee red blister, and coffee leaf rust which continue to lower both quality and quantity of coffee produced in this sub-region.

In response, Asiimwe told the farmers that UCDA will soon support them with pesticides and fungicides to help fight pests and diseases.

Uganda coffee was ranked 3rd best in the world behind Ethiopia and Kenya by professional coffee tasters in a survey of the top 16 coffee-growing countries in the world.

The coffee tasters graded 1,229 coffees from around the world that was harvested from 2010 to 2018 with the top three spots going to African countries.

The professional coffee tasters are certified by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), a non-profit organization that works internationally to improve the quality of coffee and the lives of the people who produce it.

The CQI certified coffee graders must pass 22 tests to prove they can grade coffee accurately and consistently by its aroma, flavour, acidity, body, balance and more.

A grading scale with a maximum score of 100 was used to score coffees from each of the 16 countries.

Ethiopia scored the highest average rating with 84.88, followed by Kenya with an average rating of 84.31 and Uganda came third with an average rating of 84.05.

Out of the Uganda coffees that were tested, Arabica coffee owned by Kabum Trading Company in Kapchwora, Eastern Uganda came top with a score of 86.83.

Dr. Emmanuel Iyamulemye, the Managing Director, Uganda Coffee Development Authority said that Uganda’s coffee has been improving over the years and stakeholders need to more so that Uganda attains the number one position.  

“The quality of Ugandan coffee has been improving over the years following massive sensitization conducted by UCDA among coffee farmers and if everyone in the coffee value chain does it right, we can attain no.1 position in the world.” 

Uganda’s Coffee Sector

Coffee is the second largest valued commodity in international trade and most widely traded tropical agricultural commodity after petroleum. In the East African Community, Uganda remains the lead exporter of coffee, closely followed by Kenya and Tanzania.

Coffee exports for 12 months to October 2020, totaled to 5,409,054 bags worth $513.99m compared to 4,465,534 bags worth $435.81m the previous year. This represents a 20% and 18% increase in both quantity and value. The improved performance was attributed to an increase in production on the account of fruitation of newly planted coffee trees and favourable weather.

Under the Coffee Road Map, the Government aims at accelerating coffee exports to 20 million bags per year.

Uganda registered an in-crease in monthly coffee exports in the months of July, August and September surpassing the 500,000 bags mark. The increase is the highest since 1991.

In July, Uganda saw the highest increase in coffee exports since the liberalisation of Uganda’s coffee industry in 1991.

A total of 543,251 60 kg bags of coffee valued at US$ 49.78 mil-lion were exported in July 2020. In August, Uganda exported a total of 519,683 60 kg bags of coffee valued at US$ 46.06 million. A total of 506,470 60 kg bags of coffee valued at US$ 44.64 million were exported in September 2020.

The increase in export volumes is a direct result of deliberate efforts undertaken by UCDA to increase coffee production in the country.

In 2014, UCDA embarked on a countrywide drive to replant coffee in the country in order to revive coffee production that had stagnated at 3.5 million bags. UCDA worked with several stakeholders including the National Coffee Research Institute (NaCO-RI) to multiply coffee seedlings and Operation Wealth Creation to distribute free seedlings to farmers across the country.

In 2017, coffee exports jumped from 3.5 million bags to 4.7 million bags and the growth trend has continued. Coffee exports for the coffee year (October 2019 to September 2020) totalled to 5,360,859 bags worth US512.23 million compared to 4,439,808 bags worth US$ 433.95 million the previous year. This represents 21% and 18% increase in quantity and value respectively. If the trajectory continues, Uganda will meet the 20M target set out in the coffee road map.