Over the last decade efforts by government, several development partners and private sector have been geared at improving good agriculture practices [better extension services] and fighting disease and pests, as the perceived main causes of low coffee productivity and production in Uganda. These efforts gathered a lot of steam in the last five years however; coffee productivity and production volumes do not seem to be responding in the expected manner.
Robusta exports during the five years 2005/2010 averaged around 2.1 million bags with a high of 2.7 million (2007/08) and a low of 1.4 million (2005/06 – the lowest in the last 20 years). This compares with average exports of 2.3 million bags over the previous five years (2000/04) and 3.2 million bags in the five years prior to that (1995/2000). Uganda’s coffee production has stagnated actually at 2.7 million bags [165,000 metric tons] over the last 10 years.