UGANDA – Coffee being the largest single foreign exchange earner for Uganda since the 1970s, the country has planned to open a coffee shop in Germany and Denmark in a move aimed at the growing market for the country’s coffee.

Dr. Emmanuel Iyamulemye, the Managing Director at Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) announced after having a fruitful meeting with Amb. Phoebe Otala on promoting Uganda coffee in Germany and Denmark.

Dr. Iyamulemye said UCDA, in collaboration with Foreign Affairs Ministry, “will launch the Uganda coffee shop in Germany and Denmark soon.”

According to him, Germany is one of the top destinations for Uganda coffee in Europe. In December 2022, Germany imported 48,879 60-kg bags of coffee, and Denmark, on the other hand, is the fourth most coffee-drinking country in the world.

The opening of the shop in both countries is a pacesetting effort to tap into the huge market opportunities for Uganda coffee.

“They (coffee shops) will also support Ugandan entrepreneurs in sourcing for markets,” Iyamulemye said, adding that the move is in line with the Coffee Roadmap launched by President Yoweri Museveni in 2017 to build structured demand for Uganda coffee through country-to-country deals.

Robusta coffee accounts for 94% of the country’s output, while Arabica coffee accounts for the remaining 6%.

Uganda, now ranked 2nd in Africa and 7th in the world for coffee production, has approximately 500,000 coffee farms, and about 25% of the entire country’s population, is dependent on coffee for their livelihood.

Exports for Financial Year 2020/21 were worth more than Shs1.9 trillion compared to about Shs1.7 trillion in Financial Year 2019/20.

Uganda, through UCDA, has embarked on a deliberate campaign to grow Uganda’s coffee demand in growing markets.

Efforts are also underway to have Uganda coffee sold in the United Kingdom, China, Turkey, and the United States of America, among others. Cupping sessions have been held in some of these countries, as reported by Business Focus.

However, Uganda’s coffee industry might be walking into a challenging 2023 defined by falling prices and diminished output forecasts following the recent dry spell that hit major growing areas.

While the sector enjoyed a boom between 2020 and 2022–with surging coffee prices, rising export volumes, and considerable incomes for farmers–a decline in international shipping costs and improved production forecasts in Brazil triggered a slump in coffee prices in the last quarter of 2022, according to industry players as reported by The East African media.

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