Uganda, one of the world's leading coffee-producing countries, is planning a strong return to the Russian market in 2025 by significantly increasing coffee supplies, Uganda's Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Wilson Mbasu Mbadi told Sputnik.
Speaking on the sidelines of the first ministerial conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum, Mbadi also revealed that the East African country plans to open a coffee trading hub to boost its domestic coffee industry.
"We are making efforts to industrialize at home, add value to what we produce at home for our own market but also sell the excess to our friends. And so that means that we have to look for markets. When you hear of a hub here, it is that we are looking for alternative markets, especially for our coffee. The hub you must have heard here was about coffee," he said.
The opening of the coffee hub is aimed at testing the waters, the minister said, adding that "once you know that there is a market, the supply will increase."
In December 2023, Uganda's Ambassador to Russia, Moses Kizige, said that Ugandan coffee has a 5% share of the Russian market.
The first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was held on November 9-10 at the Sirius Federal District, which is located near the borders of Sochi's Adler.