Ugandan Coffee Exports To China Set To Soar – CoffeeTalk

The Ugandan government has cleared Mwanyi Terimba Limited, one of the business arms of the Buganda Kingdom, to export coffee beans to China. The approval followed a sanitary and phytosanitary systems (SPS) audit, confirming that Mwanyi Terimba Limited meets all required standards for export. The company will be subjected to continuous inspections and audits to ensure compliance with relevant sanitary and phytosanitary requirements.

The government has also approved Mwanyi Terimba Limited to export both roasted coffee beans and green coffee, with plans to set up a factory in Nakisunga, Mukono District. In 2016, Buganda launched the Mwanyi Terimba initiative to promote coffee production in the kingdom as a strategy to fight household poverty among Kabaka’s subjects. Many farmers have responded positively to the kingdom’s call, with UCDA signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the kingdom from which 10 million seedlings were distributed to farmers across Buganda. According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s latest report, Buganda region is the leading coffee producer in Uganda, contributing a total of 3,173,854 bags of Robusta coffee in the Financial Year 2023/2024, followed by Rwenzori, which had both Arabica and Robusta (914,675 bags).

President Museveni defended the decision to disband the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), stating that it is the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) that revived and expanded coffee production across the country. He said Uganda currently earns $900 million from the 9 million bags of coffee currently being exported, up from the 2 million bags in 1986. With value addition, Uganda could earn 15 times more from the same quantum of raw materials.

With farmers paying more attention to their crops and more people venturing into coffee production and turning formerly idle land into coffee plantations, the government projects that the country could produce more than 9 million bags of coffee and earn far more money in foreign currency than it did the previous year. There is hope that the Coffee Roadmap target of producing 20 million 60 kg bags by 2030 will be achieved much earlier than it was originally projected.

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