According to media reports, on September 3, the Party Secretary of China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs met with Uganda's Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries in Beijing. The Chinese side stated that it will continue to implement South-South cooperation projects with Uganda to benefit more people. Uganda's Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries also expressed hope that China will strengthen exchanges in agricultural research and personnel training for Uganda, and push cooperation toward tangible results.

This news will benefit Uganda's agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries, which form the mainstay of Uganda's economy. The agricultural population accounts for about 80% of the national population, and its main exports include coffee, cotton and tea. Ugandan coffee entered China as early as 2003, and the country's coffee development authority is also accelerating coffee production and is expected to increase exports to China in connection with this Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Recently, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) released its 2023/24 financial year report, which noted that Uganda achieved growth in both coffee export volume and export value.According to the report, as of the end of June 2024, Uganda's total coffee exports in the 2023/24 financial year reached 6.13 million bags, with export value reaching 1.144 billion US dollars. Compared with the previous 2022/23 financial year export volume of 5.8 million bags, this was an increase of 6.33%, and export value also rose by 35.29%.

The sharp increase in export value was mainly driven by international coffee prices. In January this year, Uganda's average coffee export price was 2.96 USD/kg, and by June, the average coffee export price had risen to 4.06 USD/kg, an increase of 79.14% compared with the same period last year. By July this year, coffee exports reached821593bags, an increase of 26.15% compared with the same period last year, and it has been growing continuously.

This situation benefited from the EU's earlier Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), as the regulation will take effect on December 30, 2024. To prevent a bean shortage in the first half of next year, EU traders increased imports and did not hesitate to pay higher prices to purchase.

In addition, coffee supplies from Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, declined due to severe drought, and affected by the threat of the Red Sea crisis and rising shipping prices, the EU began turning to producing countries such as Brazil or Uganda.

Uganda's largest coffee export market is the EU, and robusta is Uganda's main export variety. Affected by this, in this fiscal year Uganda exported a total of 614486 bags of robusta, with an export value of 149.95 million USD, an increase of 25.5% in export volume and 102.97% in export value compared with the same period last year.

But at the same time, Arabica exports declined: in this fiscal year Arabica exports totaled 52,551 bags, with an export value of 12.415 million US dollars, down 29.51% in volume and 25.9% in value compared with the same period last year.

According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Ugandan coffee has performed exceptionally well, with exports growing substantially, and the incomes of Ugandan coffee farmers have also risen significantly, thanks to funding previously requested from the government, which strengthened Uganda's agricultural output. In addition, the Ugandan government said earlier that it will continue to strengthen Uganda's coffee industry, hoping to raise production to 20 million bags, and the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is expected to increase trade between the two sides, enabling Ugandan coffee to also boost its exports to China.

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