Coffee and cocoa expo opens in Kampala as exports hover near US$2.5 billion
Trade Minister David Bahati used the Serena gathering to talk up coffee as a foreign-exchange pillar.
The Uganda Coffee and Cocoa Expo is underway at the Serena, with Trade Minister David Bahati among the voices putting a figure of about US$2.5 billion on recent coffee export earnings. The expo is a Kampala shop window. The crop is a hillside one. Kigezi farmers who still dry cherries on tarpaulins will want to know whether the US$2.5 billion story changes the price at the store in town, or only the speeches in the capital. Bahati’s diary this year already includes Kigezi industry promises on potatoes and iron ore. Coffee is the commodity that already works. The test is whether the expo money trickles past the exporters. _Based on expo coverage, 13 August 2026._