Restructuring Uganda’s Coffee Industry: Why Going Back to the Basics Matters

After experiencing a boom during the mid-1990s, the performance of Uganda's coffee industry has been disappointing. Most existing analyses see the sector's problems as quality deterioration, poor marketing position in the global market, weak regulatory framework, and poor infrastructure. R...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Baffes, John
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
GDP
TEA
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/10/7095537/restructuring-ugandas-coffee-industry-going-back-basics-matters
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9272
Description
Summary:After experiencing a boom during the mid-1990s, the performance of Uganda's coffee industry has been disappointing. Most existing analyses see the sector's problems as quality deterioration, poor marketing position in the global market, weak regulatory framework, and poor infrastructure. Recommendations range from setting up a coffee auction to increasing the share of specialty coffees. This paper concludes that such advice has been largely inconsistent with the stylized facts of the Ugandan coffee industry. It argues that the coffee wilt disease and the effectiveness of the coffee replanting program are the two key issues on which policymakers and the donor community should focus their activities and allocate their resources.