Uganda beats India to Italian coffee market

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Uganda has displaced India as the number one Coffee supplier on the Italian market.

India is the seventh world leading Coffee producer with 348,000 metric tonnes per year, while Uganda follows in eighth position with 288,000 metric tonnes produced per year. But Uganda has the third best quality and Coffee in the world after Ethiopia and Kenya. 

Dr. Emmanuel Iyamulemye, says eclipsing India on the Italian market is pegged on the quality of Uganda’s Coffee and resilience of Coffee production in Uganda during the COVID 19 pandemic and lockdown.

Between April and December 2020, Italy imported 130,653 coffee bags from Uganda.   There are two countries among the top 10 producers in the world from Africa, which is Ethiopia in fifth position producing 384,000 metric tonnes per annum and Uganda. Coffee exports earn Uganda 634 million pounds per year according to asareca.org.

According to the world Atlas of top 25 Coffee consuming countries, Italy stands at position 13 with a per capita Coffee consumption of five kilograms per annum. Italy has a population of approximately 60 million people, who consume an average of five kilograms of Coffee per year.   According to the Coffee quality institute of the United States of America has ranked Uganda third among the best countries producing quality Coffee in the world. Uganda comes third after Ethiopia and Kenya respectively in 1st and 2nd position with a rating of 84.05 according to 1229 professional coffee tasters certified by the Coffee quality institute (CQI).

Ethiopia and Kenya have a rating of 84.88 and 84.31 each respectively the CQI reported on a grading scale of 100. Three East African countries are among the top 10 countries producing quality Coffee, with Tanzania in 10th position. According to the CQI, the graders run 22 tastes before ascertaining the quality of Coffee from particular countries with a cumulative figure that determines its ranking position.

Joseph Nkandu, a coffee entrepreneur with NUCAFE says the gains in the Italian market and producing quality coffee came as a result of group coffee farming under the farm modal where farmers are taught how to plant, harvest store and look for markets to improve the entire Coffee value chain.

“Farmers unlike in the past, plant quality seed, use the right in puts, spacing on farm and harvest the ripe fruit. The post harvest handling has also improved when farmers dry coffee on plastic sheets, mats, use solar driers to get the right moisture levels and store the coffee in gunny bags and air tight containers.” Nkandu said.

This has improved the coffee improved the coffee value chain within the last two years, since the launch of the Coffee road map in 2018. The farm ownership modal builds farmers abilities to be in charge of their own affairs and be responsible for their actions on the farm and after harvesting the coffee. It addresses the inefficiencies in the coffee value chain that have dwarfed quality coffee production in the last decade.

Nkandu, says that farmers add value to their coffee, sell it locally and out of Uganda which is well stipulated in the coffee road map of Uganda. Uganda’s coffee export has also increased in the last two years in the 2019/2020 season, lasting from March 2019 to February 2020; exports amounted to 4.74 million 60-kilo-bags worth USD 459.52 million, compared to 4.24 million bags worth USD 435 million in 2018/2019. Exports of the Robusta variety in February 2020 increased by 48.61% in terms of quantity and 43.05% in terms of value, and 36.8% and 44.28% respectively for the Arabica variety compared to February 2019 due to the increase in production.

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