Uganda Coffee

Who does not stop in a coffee shop with friends sharing a black coffee, an espresso, a Mocha, a cappuccino or even a decaf? At home as at work, the sound of the coffee machine give rhythm to the day : at breakfast, after a meal, during the day to make a small break, even sometimes after dinner. Coffeehouse were coffee hubs since centuries and still are strongly part of our life, and social life.

While Arabica was introduced at the beginning of the 1900's, Robusta coffee is indigenous to the country, and has been a part of Ugandan life for centuries. The variety of wild Robusta coffee still growing today in Uganda's rain forests are thought to be some of the rarest examples of naturally occurring coffee trees anywhere in the world. The coffee trees are intercropped with traditional food crops and grown in the shade of banana trees and other shade trees. In these self-sustaining conditions, coffee is left to grow naturally, flowering on average twice a year.

Whilst the economy as a whole has expanded and improved in recent years, coffee remains of vital importance, earning on average just short of 30% of annual export revenues. It is estimated that as much as 20% of the entire population earn all or a large part of their cash income from coffee.

Uganda is the third largest producer of Arabica coffee in Africa after Ethipia and Kenya and the second largest producer of Robusta coffee after Ivory Coast. Uganda is the only major coffee producer in the world that can produce coffee all year round due to its location on the Equator and its seasonably good weather.