Uganda shipped 735,435 bags of coffee in September 2026, worth US$186.9 million, according to the monthly coffee report for September 2026 posted on ugandacoffee.go.ug, the government's coffee site. The same report puts that volume 12.4% below September 2025 and the value 13.9% lower. It also closes the books on the 2025/26 coffee year, which ran from October 2025 to September 2026: about 8 million bags, worth US$2.1 billion, according to the report.
September was the last month of the coffee year, and it came in close to August. The August 2026 monthly report recorded 737,766 bags, as we reported on 6 October, so the month-on-month change was a fall of about 2,300 bags, our arithmetic from the two reports. That August report had projected September at roughly 700,000 bags. The actual figure landed about 35,000 bags above that projection.
How did September compare with a year earlier?
The September report shows robusta and arabica moving in opposite directions. Robusta exports fell 18.9% to 622,081 bags, worth US$143.7 million, and robusta earnings fell 23.9%, according to the report. Arabica exports rose 56.0% to 113,354 bags, worth US$43.2 million, with arabica earnings up 52.6%. Robusta still made up 85% of the month's volume, the report says, down from 92% in August.
The report gives an average export price of US$4.2 per kilo for September, against US$4.1 in August and US$4.3 a year earlier. It shows US$3.9 per kilo for robusta and US$6.4 for arabica. A 60-kilo bag of Ugandan robusta at that average is worth about US$234; a bag of arabica, about US$384, both our arithmetic from the per-kilo figures the report published.
The year-earlier comparison carries a discrepancy. The report's table shows a September 2025 total of 853,543 bags and US$202.6 million, but its own robusta and arabica rows for September 2025 add up to 839,801 bags and US$217.2 million, our arithmetic. The percentage changes it publishes, 12.4% and 13.9%, match the row totals rather than the printed total. The original September 2025 report recorded a third figure, 844,949 bags worth US$218.6 million. Neither report explains the difference.
What did the full 2025/26 coffee year add up to?
The report shows 2025/26 exports of 8 million bags worth US$2.1 billion, or UGX 7.6 trillion. It recorded that as a 3.4% fall in volume and a 9.4% fall in value against 2024/25. The September 2025 report recorded 2024/25 exports of 8,240,876 bags worth US$2.3 billion. Applied to the 8.24 million bags recorded for 2024/25, the report's 3.4% fall works out to roughly 280,000 fewer bags, our arithmetic. At 8 million 60-kilo bags, the year's exports come to close to 480,000 metric tons of green coffee, also our arithmetic, or an average of about 667,000 bags a month across the year.
The report gives two reasons for the fall. It attributes the lower 12-month volume to reduced production during the main season, naming the Greater Masaka and South Western regions. It attributes the lower value to global prices that it says remain under pressure from larger supplies out of Brazil and Vietnam.
The International Coffee Organization's September 2026 Coffee Market Report recorded the Robustas group indicator averaging 167.49 US cents per pound in September, down 7.3% on the month. The ICO also reported world robusta exports of 4.36 million bags in August 2026, up 22.4% on August 2025. The same ICO report named Uganda as the main driver of a fall in African exports in August, putting Uganda's August shipments at an estimated 0.78 million bags against 0.86 million a year earlier. That ICO estimate is higher than the 737,766 bags in Uganda's own August report; the two are reported here side by side and were not reconciled by either body.
Uganda's finance ministry linked an earlier fall to the same two countries. Its Performance of the Economy report for August 2026, reported by Martin Luther Oketch in the Monitor on 21 September, put July 2026 coffee export earnings at US$204.94 million, down 18.2% from US$250.60 million in July 2025, and tied the fall to lower volumes and to lower global prices following strong harvests in Brazil and Vietnam.
Where did Uganda's coffee go in September?
Italy took the largest share of September's volume, 21.2%, according to the report, down from 25.2% in August. Sudan took 18.5%, India 10.3%, Germany 7.9% and Switzerland 7.4%, up from 1.3% in August. Europe as a whole took 56% of the month's exports and Africa 24%, the report says. Eighty-five companies exported coffee in September; the ten largest handled 68% of it, led by Ugacof at 16.3%, Ideal Quality Commodities at 11.5% and Jber Coffee at 8.0%.
What were Ugandan farmers paid in September?
The report lists average farm-gate prices for September in Ugandan shillings per kilo. Set against the August prices the report shows, three of the four rose by 100 shillings or less and kiboko, the dried robusta cherry, fell by 340, our arithmetic.
- Kiboko (dried robusta cherry): UGX 5,410 per kilo in September 2026, against 5,750 in August (monthly coffee report, September 2026)
- FAQ (fair average quality, hulled robusta): UGX 12,050 per kilo, against 12,000 in August (same report)
- Arabica parchment: UGX 15,575 per kilo, against 15,500 in August (same report)
- Drugar (dry-processed arabica): UGX 14,850 per kilo, against 14,750 in August (same report)
- Robustas group indicator: 167.49 US cents per pound, September 2026 average, down 7.3% (ICO Coffee Market Report, September 2026)
What does the report project for October?
The report projects Uganda's exports at 700,000 bags for October 2026, the first month of the 2026/27 coffee year. That is a projection, not a count, and the August report's projection for September came in about 5% below the actual figure, our arithmetic. The ICO's supply figures for Brazil and Vietnam are covered in our earlier reports on the ICO's September report and on Vietnam's 2026/27 harvest outlook. For the difference between the two species Uganda grows, see whether robusta is a different species of coffee.
Photograph (top): Michael Starkie, Unsplash. Coffee cherries drying near Kampala, Uganda, published on Unsplash in March 2025. It shows Ugandan coffee drying, not the September 2026 shipments.
