Introduction of coffee, coffee and bean producing countries in Uganda

In Uganda, Arabica coffee beans account for only 10% of the country's coffee production, but it is enough to attract attention. Uganda's best coffee is produced mainly in the Elgon and Bugisu mountains along the Kenyan border in the north and in the Ruwensori mountains in the west, where coffee is available for export in January or February of each year.

The equator crosses Uganda, and the right climate makes it the world's leading producer of robert coffee beans. In the 1960s Uganda's coffee production remained at 3.5 million bags per year. By the mid-1980s, mainly for political reasons, coffee production had dropped to 250 bags a year. But coffee production is picking up again and is now about 3 million bags a year. One of the major problems facing the coffee industry is the lack of good roads to transport coffee to ports such as Mombasa in Kenya or Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

In order to improve coffee quality and reduce costs, Uganda abolished the exclusive rights of the Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) in November 1990. Most of the work previously undertaken by the Coffee Marketing Committee has now been transferred to cooperative organizations. Privatized coffee generates two-thirds of the country's export revenue, so the government imposed a tax on coffee in the hope of raising much-needed revenue. This has led to a 20% drop in coffee exports and an increase in coffee smuggling.

As in Tanzania, where rising coffee prices in recent years have encouraged farmers to return to plantations and reclaim once-abandoned land for coffee, Uganda's coffee industry looks promising.