UCDA was established in 1991 under the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act, Cap. 325, which was repealed and replaced by the National Coffee Act No. 17 of 2021. The authority’s mandate includes regulating activities within the coffee value chain, promoting coffee quality, supporting research and development, and optimizing earnings for stakeholders in the sector.

The chairperson of ‘Let’s Fight Illiteracy and Ignorance’ and the Uganda Association of the Uneducated Persons, John Bukenya, has urged the opposition members of the parliament to stop politicizing the Uganda Coffee Bill that seeks to rationalize the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF).

Dr. Ezra Suruma, the former Minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development, has suggested that the National Coffee Bill...

Katikiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has asked the government to scrutinize President Yoweri Museveni’s recent proposal to dissolve the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and adopt sustainable approaches to the National Coffee (Amendment) Bill 2024.

The most efficient services come from specialized institutions whose knowledge and expertise take many decades to learn and achieve. It is unimaginable, for example, to make Mulago Hospital a department in the Ministry of Health or Makerere University a department in the Ministry of Education. The low quality of service delivery in many government departments deserves improvement, not additional work, and throwing away institutions like paper towels is very difficult to understand.

According to President Museveni’s letter about the rationalization of UCDA, it is fraudulent for UCDA to claim that the big boost in agricultural production is because of its efforts, arguing that since 1991, the year UCDA was formed, by 2013, 68% of the Ugandan homesteads were still outside the money economy, which compelled the government to initiate Operation Wealth Creation.

The government of Uganda is well conversant that coffee is a critical part of the economy, and its importance is growing with over 1.8 million households growing coffee, which contributes nearly a third of the country's export earnings, paying for critical infrastructure like roads, hospitals, and schools.

The Prime Minister (Katikiro) of the Buganda Kingdom, Charles Peter Mayiga, has urged coffee growers across the country to register with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) for continued access to the EU, the nation's largest market.