By Joshua Kato
Rationalisation was the word on everyone’s lips throughout 2024, and by the time the dust settled, at least nine key agricultural enterprise authorities were gone.
By the end of the year, President Yoweri Museveni had assented to Bills that, among other parastatals, dissolved the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Dairy Development Authority (DDA), Cotton Development Organisation (CDO), and the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), transferring them back to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
According to the finance ministry, rationalisation was intended to avoid duplicity and reduce expenditure on salaries.
The process of returning these agencies to the parent ministry was filled with protests and uncertainty, especially in the case of UCDA.
Some voices claimed that UCDA had performed exceptionally well compared to the other agencies and should be retained. The debate became so emotional that some politicians accused the Government of attempting to take away their coffee businesses. In Parliament, a dramatic first reading of the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX) Bill took place to merge UCDA with the agriculture ministry.
Lira District Woman MP and chairperson of the committee on agriculture, Linda Auma, presented the majority report to the House, presided over by Speaker Annet Anita Among.
The majority report recommended merging UCDA with the agriculture ministry. However, Asinansi Nyakato, the Hoima City Woman MP, countered it with a minority report opposing the merger.
After an intense debate, MPs voted 159 in favour of the Bill and 77 against it, leading the Bill to its second reading. On the final day, the Bill was passed.
Some MPs like Francis Zaake (Mityana Municipality, NUP) violently protested in Parliament, but in the end, the Bill was passed.
Coffee Continues to Shin
Despite the disruptions, the country’s coffee industry has seen significant growth, with coffee exports reaching a record-breaking $1.14b in 2023/24, the highest value in 30 years.
In October 2024, coffee exports amounted to 496,820 60-kilo bags, worth $139.05m. This comprised 457,853 bags of robusta valued at $ 127.46m and 38,967 bags of arabica valued at $ 11.59 million.
According to UCDA, this represented an increase of 5.77% in quantity and 76.27% in value compared to the same month last year.
When comparing the quantity of coffee exported by type in October 2023, robusta exports increased by 11.66% in quantity and 90.64% in value, while arabica exports decreased by 34.67% in quantity and 3.64% in value.
The monthly coffee export volume was higher than the previous year.
Arabica exports, however, were lower due to the biennial off-year cycle and poor flowering in the Mt. Elgon region.
The value of coffee exports was higher due to the increase in global coffee prices, caused by dry conditions in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s largest producers of arabica and robusta coffee.
These conditions are expected to affect coffee crop yields and may lead to a supply deficit in 2024/25.
Coffee exports for the 12 months from November 2023 to October 2024 totalled 6.38 million bags worth $1.46b, compared to 6.16 million bags worth $953.14m during the previous year (November 2022–October 2023).
This represents an increase of 3.60% in quantity and 53.38% in value. The average export price was $ 4.66 per kilo, 13 US cents higher than in September 2024 ($4.53). It was $1.86 higher than in September 2023 ($ 2.80 per kilo).
Robusta exports accounted for 92.1% of total exports, lower than 94.8% in September 2024. The average robusta price was $ 4.64 per kilo, 11 cents higher than $ 4.53 per kilogramme the previous month.
The highest price was for organic robusta, which sold at $ 5.56 per kilo, followed by organic screen 18 and 12, which sold at $ 5.53 per kilogramme.
According to UCDA, the share of sustainable/washed coffee in total robusta exports was 4.9%, higher than 4.2% in September 2024.
Arabica fetched an average price of $4.96 per kilo, 43 US cents higher than the previous month ($4.53).
The highest price was for organic Bugisu, which sold at $ 6.09 per kilogramme, followed by Bugisu AB, which sold at $5.43 per kilo. Drugar was sold at $4.99 per kilo, 27 cents higher than $4.72 per kilo last month.
Drugar exports made up 53% of total arabica exports, higher than 31% the previous month. The share of sustainable arabica exports in total arabica exports was 7%, lower than 16% in September 2024.
In 2025, coffee exports are expected to continue rising, mainly due to new coffee farms being harvested for the first time.
Women as Best Farmer
It is not often that women directly compete with men and win, but during the 2024 Best Farmers Competition, women emerged as the overall winners.
When the winners were announced on December 11, all of the top three winners were women. This marks the first time in the competition’s history that women have claimed the top spots.
This story perhaps reflects the resilience of women in agriculture.
The Best Farmers Competition is an annual event organised by Vision Group in collaboration with the Embassy of the Netherlands, dfcu Bank, KLM Airlines and Koudjis Nutrition BV. Until 2024, women’s performance in the annual competition had been minimal.
“For the past eight years, we have had only 33 women among the 111 Best Farmers winners so far, and only one woman as an overall winner,” lamented Victoria Ssekitoleko, one of the judges for the competition, who is also a former agriculture minister.
“This is not good, especially given the fact that we all know women do most of the farming,” she added.
The 2025 competition is set to start in March.
Launch of modern feed
In 2024, two modern livestock concentrate processing facilities were launched in the country.
One is owned by Nutreco and operates under the name Tunga in Ntinda, while the other is owned by Koudjis Nutrition BV in Njeru, Jinja.
Both companies are from the Netherlands, which also sponsors the Best Farmers Competition. Both facilities are set to improve livestock nutrition and serve as a positive reminder of the impact the Best Farmers Competition has had over the last 10 years.
For example, the owners of Tunga first visited the country to attend the expo.
“They came and attended the Harvest Money Expo in 2017, partly to explore how they could deeply invest in the livestock feed value chain in Uganda,” Dr Samuel Ssewagudde, the commercial manager at Tunga Nutrition, said.
After realising the huge potential of the livestock feed industry in Uganda, the group began searching for a facility to process feeds locally.
In February 2022, a major announcement was made: Nutreco had acquired the redundant UNGA Millers facility and planned to renovate it into a modern concentrate factory.
De Heus Launches in Jinja
In 2016, a group of best farmers visited the Netherlands as part of their winning prize.
One of the facilities they visited was the Koudjis Nutrition BV plant in Ravenstein, Netherlands, which helped form a bond between the companies. Nearly 10 years later, Koudjis, now one of the leading livestock feed sellers in the country, is constructing a feed factory in Buikwe.
According to the company, the facility has been set up with Dutch technology.
This will not only bring feed products closer to Ugandans, but will also create vital jobs for the local population.
“In January 2024, we began recruiting Ugandan workers, primarily from the areas of Jinja, Iganga, Buikwe and Mukono,” said Verhoek.
Construction of the Njeru facility began in June this year.
He added that Koudjis operates in over 70 countries worldwide, employing about 14,000 workers globally.
Verhoek further explained that the facility will require raw materials, especially grains like soya beans, which are grown by Ugandans.
“As you know, the facility mainly processes grains into feed. We therefore need a lot of these crops grown by Ugandans across the country,” he said.
He emphasised that the produce must meet the highest quality standards.
“This Jinja factory is maintaining the same high standards we have across the world. Therefore, the raw materials we use must also meet that level,” he stated.
