UCDA says ready to meet the EU export regulations deadline
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority has said that Uganda it will comply and meet the December 2024 deadline.
This follows a letter from the coffee multi stakeholder letter to the European President Von der Leyen in which the coffee sector players seeking to have the EU commission to address challenges in the EUDR implementation not later than October 2024, establishment of permanent platform for dialogue, between the EU and the coffee sector among other concerns
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Europe remains the largest consumer of Ugandan coffee with almost 70% of the export destined for these consumer markets.
However, the European Union Parliament passed a resolution, the EUDR which requires that importers to show that their products are not inked to deforestation and human rights abuses will apply from December, 30, 2024 for larger companies and six months later for smaller companies.
Coffee plantations like this one, tucked in Masaka, is where players like Jackline Arinda the CEO of Jada coffee get produce to add value, and later on export to the EU countries but she is currently worried about the challenges in implementing the EUDR,
“The UCDA seems not not be moving as fast as it should be because the deadline is fast approaching. You see there are deeper seated challenges that might affect traceability of the Ugandan coffee, because there is scarcity of data, the definition of child labor has not been harmonized, among other concerns," Arinda says.
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority, however says that it is implementing various measures to meet the December deadline.
“We Still trying to see how we engage the different stakeholders to see whether there could be an extension but the communication has done clearly that they will be my extension," says Robert Nangatsa an extension manager at UCDA .
Data available at the UCDA website indicates that, Uganda exported 6,670,376 kg of coffee in June 2024 valued at US$ 162.36 million.
This was an increase of 18% and 79% in volume and value respectively compared to the same month last year. Hopes of private sector players to be handheld to produce and sell more are high.
The authority maintains that it is taking measures to increase the export figures as well as engaging with coffee farmers despite the low budget.
“We we are making a deliberate effort is achieving cultural demand strategic target strategic target with a billion bucks so two ways, one by implementing interventions that increase production and productivity, but also investing in validation. As you can see, in terms of revenue, we have almost achieved one point we are closer to achieving the target of 1.5 million US dollars because this year we managed to get 1.14 So we are getting closer there," Nangatsa added.
“There has been a lot of investment, very ambition, the quality of coffee that we're exporting the quality is very good. Fetching being very competitive in the global market. But also, we have seen we have moved from that time from is a positive trend towards achieving and this is just the volume of exports. minus the total production for production is now coming up to 8 billion pounds. So, we are in the right direction.”
Coffee exports in Uganda for 12 months (Financial year 2023/24) totaled 6.13 million bags worth US$ 1.14 billion compared to 5.76 million bags worth US$ 846.02 million in the previous year.
