Coffee in Uganda

Uganda is robusta country. It grows about 7 million bags of coffee a year, sixth in the world, and about four in five of them are robusta, a species that grows wild in Uganda’s forests around Lake Victoria. The rest is arabica, from the slopes of Mount Elgon in the east and the Rwenzori in the west. About nine-tenths of it comes from small farms, and almost all of it is exported green. Here’s how much, where, when and where it goes.

The short version

• About 7.1 million bags a year, sixth in the world (USDA).
• Mostly robusta, which is native to Uganda; arabica from the mountains.
• About 1.8 million coffee-farming households, nearly all smallholders.
• Robusta harvest May–August in the south; arabica from about September.
• More than 98% exported green, most of it to Europe.
• Official figures run higher than USDA’s, by up to 2 million bags.

How much coffee does Uganda grow?

It depends on who’s counting. USDA’s figures, for a coffee year from October to September, in 60 kg bags:

Coffee year	Robusta	Arabica	Total	Exports
2024/25	5.67 million	1.03 million	6.70 million	6.35 million
2025/26 (estimate)	5.98 million	1.12 million	7.10 million	6.70 million
2026/27 (forecast)	6.03 million	1.14 million	7.16 million	6.83 million

Source: USDA, May 2026.

Uganda’s own figures are bigger:

Measure	Uganda’s figure	USDA’s figure
Production, 2025/26	9.3 million bags (Ministry of Agriculture forecast, October 2025)	7.10 million bags
Production, 2021/22	8.4 million bags (UCDA)	Not compared here
Exports, 12 months to August 2026	8.1 million bags (Ministry of Agriculture)	6.70 million bags for October 2025–September 2026
Robusta’s share	About 80% (USDA’s text)	About 84% (USDA’s table)

The coffee commissioner put the rise down to new planting coming into production; the government’s goal is 30 million bags by 2030, Reuters reported. USDA, for its part, raised its 2025/26 export estimate partly for unreported shipments to Sudan.

Robusta, Uganda’s own coffee

Robusta is native here. Uganda is one of the few countries with indigenous coffee, Wikipedia says, with robusta growing wild around Lake Victoria. From 1999 to 2002 the Kibale Wild Coffee Project, backed by the World Bank and USAID, tried to sell coffee harvested from Uganda’s natural forests as a premium brand, with the income paying for conservation.

Robusta grows mainly in the centre of the country, USDA says, and is spreading into the north, where there is more land. Small farmers often sun-dry it as whole cherries, sold as kiboko, while larger farms wet-mill it.

Arabica, from the mountains

Arabica came from Ethiopia and naturalised on the slopes of Mount Elgon, Wikipedia says. It grows in Uganda’s highlands: Mount Elgon in the east, the Rwenzori in the west and Mount Muhabura near Kisoro in the south-west, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA). It is typically wet-processed, USDA says, though in the western savannah zone UCDA found the arabica is mostly dried naturally.

Where is coffee grown in Uganda?

Almost everywhere: UCDA worked in 121 coffee-growing districts, grouped into ten regions. Its production surveys have given these figures, which swing a lot from year to year:

Region	Coffee	Survey production	Year
South-western Uganda	Robusta and arabica	3.2 million bags	2022/23
Greater Masaka	Robusta	3.6 million; 1.1 million	2021/22; 2022/23
Central	Robusta	4 million; 1.1 million	2021/22; 2022/23
Eastern (Busoga)	Robusta	2 million	2021/22
Rwenzori	Robusta and arabica	0.95 million	2021/22
Western	Robusta	0.3 million	2022/23
Elgon	Arabica	About 700,000 in a good season	Daily Monitor, 2026
Kigezi	Robusta and arabica	No figure
Northern	Robusta	No figure
West Nile	Robusta and arabica	No figure

Sources: UCDA annual reports, 2021/22 and 2022/23; Daily Monitor.

What does Ugandan coffee taste like?

UCDA profiled more than 1,000 samples from the 2014 to 2020 crops. In general, it found Ugandan robusta has a caramel, spicy or herbal fragrance, nutty, tropical-fruit or spicy flavours and a spicy or dried-fruit aftertaste, and Ugandan arabica has dried fruit, chocolate and citrus. Each of its growing zones has its own profile, from the floral, berry and chocolate arabicas of the highlands to the chocolatey, nutty robustas of the north.

Who grows Ugandan coffee?

Smallholders. UCDA counted about 1.8 million coffee farmers, and USDA says small farms grow about 90% of the crop, with medium and large estates the other 10%. How small depends on the source: USDA says smallholders typically farm 0.5 to 2.5 hectares, while the exporter Mountain Harvest, speaking to Algrano, says most farm less than half a hectare. Planted area was about 590,000 hectares in 2025/26, USDA says; UCDA put it at 610,000 in 2022/23.

Farmers’ main problems are the black coffee twig borer, the commonest pest, and leaf rust, the commonest disease, USDA reports, along with old trees and fertiliser prices that rose about 21%.

When is coffee harvested in Uganda?

Uganda’s harvests are spread through the year:

Crop	When	Source
Robusta, main harvest (Masaka and south-west)	May–August	Sucafina; Ministry of Agriculture
Arabica, main crop	From about September or October to about February	Algrano; Sucafina
Arabica, fly crop	April–May	Sucafina

Where does Ugandan coffee go?

Almost all of it is exported, more than 98% as green beans, USDA says. The EU took about 73% in 2024/25, followed by Morocco and the United States at about 6% each and China at 4%. In August 2026, the biggest buyers were Italy (25.2%), Sudan (15.2%) and Germany (9.9%); Europe took 63% and Africa 23%, the Ministry of Agriculture reports.

Prices have soared. USDA says export prices rose from US$2.63 a kilo in 2023/24 to US$4.64 in 2024/25, before easing to US$4.51. In the 12 months to August 2026, exports earned US$2.1 billion. In August 2026 farmers were paid about UGX 5,750 a kilo for dry robusta cherries and UGX 15,500 for arabica parchment.

Uganda now wants to sell more roasted and soluble coffee instead of green beans, but gradually, without a ban, USDA reports.

A short history

• 1980s: coffee was Uganda’s most important cash crop, much of it smuggled to neighbouring countries for better prices, Wikipedia says.
• 1991: the Uganda Coffee Development Authority was set up as the coffee industry was liberalised.
• 1999–2002: the Kibale Wild Coffee Project.
• 2021: Uganda was the world’s seventh-biggest coffee exporter and the first in Africa, UCDA said.
• 2025: UCDA was folded into the Ministry of Agriculture, which now runs coffee regulation, extension and export promotion, USDA reports.

How do Ugandans drink their coffee?

Not much of it, as a drink: Ugandans drink about 330,000 bags a year, USDA estimates, though town cafés and local roasters are growing. But coffee has an older role. The Baganda chew coffee cherries, steamed and smoke-dried, and offer them to visitors, a custom linked to the old blood-brotherhood ritual, the Daily Monitor reports. It’s close kin to the Haya amwani across Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

Ugandan coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Ethiopia: Africa’s biggest producer, and the home of arabica.
• Coffee in Vietnam: the world’s robusta giant.
• The atlas: Uganda’s growing area on the map.