09Uganda
3,000,000 bags (ICO 2009)In-depth country profile: production, varieties, classification, history, current situation and points still uncertain. Region: Africa.
In Uganda, coffee settles into the relief, and it is altitude that sorts the two species. Arabica, a minority, holds the heights: the Northeast around Mount Elgon, the West near the Ruwenzori.
Canephora, the majority, occupies the lower lands around Lake Victoria. It is at home there, since this basin is the natural habitat of the species. Uganda is therefore not only a canephora-producing country: it is a center of origin of it.
The country exports almost all of its production. For some years it has been working more on quality, notably through certifications and a national producers' association that federates several hundred grassroots organizations.
- Botanical species
- Arabica (20%), Canephora (80%)
- Altitude
- 1,300 to 2,300 m (Arabica); 900 to 1,500 m (Canephora)
- Shade
- Yes
- Harvest
- Manual and selective
- Processing
- Canephora: dry process; Arabica: wet process (fermentation 12-36 h)
- Sorting
- By density
- Harvest period
- Canephora: almost all year (peak August-April); Arabica: Sept. to Feb.
- Packaging
- 60-kg bag
Recent volume 7.05 million bags in 2024-2025, versus 6.78 the previous yearICO / UCDA, 2024-2025 coffee year
Production region + processing
E.g.: washed arabica from Bugisu = “Washed Bugisu”; natural arabica from Drugar = “Unwashed Drugar.”
Arabica: bean size
| Grade | Criteria |
| AA | 90% min > screen 17; 2% max < screen 12 |
| A | 10% max > 17; 2% max < 12 |
| B | 10% max > 16; 2% max < screen 12 |
| C | 10% max > screen 15; 5% max < screen 12 |
| PB (peaberry) | 5% max > screen 16; 2% < screen 12 |
| E (Elephant) | 85% min > 19.5; 5% max < 12 |
Canephora: bean size
| Grade | Criteria |
| Natural | 92% min on screen 18; 1% < screen 12 |
| Standard | 90% on screen 17; 2% max < screen 12 |
| Screen 14 | 5% max > screen 15; 10% max < screen 12 |
| Screen 12 | 13% > screen 15; 2% < screen 12 |
History
Uganda did not need canephora to be brought to it: it is a center of origin of it. The handbook of the national coffee authority states that the Lake Victoria basin is the native habitat of the species, and that between 150 and 400 hectares of wild canephora survive in the natural forests of the basin and in the Kibaale and Zooka-Adjumani reserves. The local populations bear the names Nganda, with a spreading habit, and Erecta, with an upright habit.
UCDA, Robusta Coffee Handbook (2019), ch. 1; World Coffee Research, Coffee Varieties Catalog 2025, Ugandan Group profileThe country was already exporting 9,999,845 pounds in 1918; a British report of 1919 counted 21,000 acres planted in coffee in the protectorate, plus 16,000 elsewhere. The sector was liberalized in 1991, framed by the regulations of 1994; research is centralized at the National Coffee Research Institute of Kituza, in Mukono District, under the National Agricultural Research Organisation, and support for producers falls to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Ukers 1922, ch. XX, p. 216-244, p. 243; Ukers 1922, ch. XXII, p. 289-291 (exports of the producing countries), p. 291; UCDA 2019, preface and §1.1Today
Coffee is the country's leading export: 492 million dollars in fiscal year 2017-2018, or 16% of Ugandan exports. About five million people live from production and associated trades.
These two figures are read together. When the world price moves, it is not only growers who take the blow, it is the export revenues of an entire country.
In the field, altitude governs the split. Arabica, a minority, occupies Mount Elgon in the Northeast and the Ruwenzori in the West, between 1,300 and 2,300 meters. Typica and Kent are planted there, processed by the wet process, that is, pulped and then fermented for 12 to 36 hours before washing.
Canephora stays lower, between 900 and 1,500 meters, and goes by the dry process: the whole cherry dries as it is, without pulping or washing.UCDA 2019, preface; Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026
UCDA 2019, preface; Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026Since 2009, national research has released ten canephora clones, the NARO-Kituza Robusta 1 to 10. All resist coffee wilt disease, this fungal disease that blocks the tree’s vessels and makes it die of thirst in moist soil.
These are clones and not seeds. They are propagated vegetatively so that each plant is the exact copy of the resistant plant: a seedling, for its part, would redistribute the traits.
The official roadmap aimed at a rise from 4.6 to 20 million bags, with a 20% extension of the area. Actual production stood at 7.05 million bags in 2024-2025.
- The gap measures the ambition of the target. No source consulted explains why it was not met.UCDA 2019, §1.1 and table 1
- World Coffee ResearchCoffee Varieties Catalog 2025, NARO-Kituza Robusta profile
- ICO / UCDA2024-2025 coffee year
Gray areas
- The target of 20 million bags for 2025, set in 2019, was not reached; no source consulted gives the official analysis of it.
- The area of wild canephora remaining in Uganda is given as a range of 150 to 400 hectares, without a more precise survey.
- The share of arabica in Ugandan production is not quantified by the available sources.
- The volume of 3,000,000 bags shown at the head of the profile dates from 2009 and has since been more than doubled.