Global coffee buyers meet Ugandan traders weeks before EU deforestation rule

KAMPALA — Two of the world’s largest green coffee traders are meeting Ugandan producers and exporters in Kampala this week, weeks before European rules take effect that will bar coffee from the EU market unless buyers can trace it to the plot of land where it was grown.

Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and Volcafe are taking part in a Uganda Coffee Value Chain Roundtable, the centrepiece of Equity Group’s 2026 Uganda Trade and Investment Roadshow, which opened at the Marriott Hotel in Kampala on Monday and runs to 16 September.

Both groups already handle a substantial share of Uganda’s crop. Neumann trades here through Ibero Uganda, which has warehouses and processing plants in Kampala and buying stations across the growing regions. Volcafe operates through Kyagalanyi Coffee, the country’s oldest licensed exporter, which ships roughly 15 per cent of national production.

The December deadline

The EU Deforestation Regulation begins applying to large and medium operators on 30 December, with micro and small operators following on 30 June 2027.

It requires that coffee entering the European market be grown on land not deforested or degraded after 31 December 2020, produced lawfully in the country of origin, and traceable to the geolocation coordinates of the plot where it was grown. Operators must file due diligence statements for shipments.

The compliance burden falls on exporters rather than on farmers directly — which places it squarely on companies such as Ibero and Kyagalanyi, whose supply bases run to tens of thousands of smallholdings, many under half a hectare and often without land documentation.

Uganda was placed in the EU’s standard-risk category when the Commission published its country benchmarking, meaning Ugandan coffee gets no relaxation of the plot-level geolocation, due diligence or deforestation-free requirements.

The deadline has already moved twice, from December 2024 and then from December 2025, before being fixed by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650.

A record crop meets a new rulebook

The timing matters because Uganda’s coffee sector is at a high point. The country exported 8.6 million 60kg bags in the 12 months to May 2026, up from 7.4 million a year earlier, earning about $2.3bn, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. Uganda overtook Ethiopia during 2025 to become Africa’s largest coffee exporter.

Coffee is Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner, and the EU is among its principal markets — which makes the traceability requirement a question of market access rather than of certification.

The wider mission

The roundtable sits within a broader trade mission that has brought more than 150 business leaders, investors and policymakers from 10 countries to Kampala, according to Equity Group. It is the group’s third Uganda mission, following missions to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to Tanzania and Zanzibar earlier this year. Delegates travel on to Kigali for a Rwanda leg ending 19 September.

Claver Serumaga, executive director of Equity Bank Uganda, said the bank’s role extended beyond lending to connecting businesses with markets, technology and partners.

“Uganda does not lack opportunity; what we need is to connect that opportunity to the right capital, markets, technology and partnerships,” he said.

Mahvish Malik, Equity Group’s associate director of trade relations, said the missions were designed to move companies from discussing markets to meeting counterparties directly.

Opening the forum, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Sanjay Tanna, urged businesses to move beyond exporting raw materials into value addition, naming agro-processing, minerals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, leather, construction materials and ICT as sectors with room to grow. He challenged Equity to extend its micro-enterprise lending model into rural Uganda and said government was ready to work with financial institutions to lower the cost of capital.

Delegates will visit Zigoti Coffee Farm, JNL Industries and Roofings Uganda Limited, among other businesses.