Destination of Ugandan Coffee
Most of Uganda’s coffee is exported to the European Union which accounts for 72% market share of total exports. The main country destinations are: The UK, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Norway. Outside the European Union, the main importing countries are Sudan, Singapore, China and India.
Markets and marketing trends of Uganda coffee
Uganda’s coffee export volumes grew by 30% from 126,000 metric tons in 2006 to 265,853 metric tons in 2007. Values grew by 40% from US$ 189 million in 2006 to US$ 265.8 million in 2007. Uganda Coffee Development Authority 2006 report indicated that yields and international prices for coffee were expected to increase in 2008, which offers significant opportunities for investment in the sector. Therefore coffee export volumes are predicted to increase along with values.
Coffee Exports
As shown above, the data and information available indicates that the coffee sector possesses significant opportunities for investment. In terms of coffee exports by type, Robusta coffee has higher procurement volumes than Arabica coffee as indicated in table-4. However, over the same period Arabica coffee has had high growth potentials.
Coffee global market
Coffee is grown and exported by more than 50 developing countries, but the major consumers are in all industrialized countries like USA, EU and, more recently, Japan. Globally, coffee is the second major traded commodity to oil and thus plays a vital role in the balance of trade between developed and developing countries, providing the latter with an important source of export earnings to pay for imports of capital and consumer goods. World consumption of coffee is projected to increase by 0.4% annually from 6.7 million ton in 1998 – 2000 to 6.9 million tons in 2010.
Coffee consumption in developing countries is projected to grow from 1.7 million tons in 1998 – 2000 to 1.9 million tons in 2010, at an annual rate of 1.3%, while their share in the world market is expected to increase from 26% in the base period to 28% in 2010. The projected higher growth rate for developing countries compared to developed countries is due mainly to higher income and population growth in developing countries, with increased coffee consumption continuing to be concentrated in the major coffee producing countries. Finally, World production for coffee in the crop year 2006/07 (April-March) was 121.57m bags, an increase of 11% over the previous season, while consumption was forecast at 116m bags, according to the International Coffee Organization (IOC).
