How is Uganda fairing in terms coffee production and export?
The coffee industry in Uganda has had some difficult and good times related to the international scene and others specific to us. We can look at production and export from two perspectives- volume and value. Exports reached the low level of two million bags in 2005 which are levels we saw in 1990-1993 at the start of liberalisation of the coffee industry. The drop in 2005 was the impact of the coffee wilt disease which was compounded by the low world market that we saw in 2003-2004. The industry is doing much better now both in volume of exports and revenue generated. Since 2005 the volume of exports has gone up by 60 per cent and value has more than doubled where we see an increase of 130 per cent. Uganda is now competitive on the international scene in terms of quality, value and volume where we are in the top eight coffee producers in the world. We understand that there are long running efforts to start exporting instant coffee. How are those efforts fairing? The local coffee compan
