The Ugandan team serves 250 cups of coffee every day at the World Expo trade convention in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Dr Emmanuel Iyamulemye, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) executive director, said on Wednesday that Ugandan coffee is the beverage of choice for over 150 delegates from across the world.

“Let’s make Uganda number one, from farm to cup,” he said in a tweet.

He said Uganda’s participation in the Expo is an opportunity to deepen penetration of the country’s coffee in the UAE market and the Middle East.

“Our target is to export 1.5m bags of coffee in the Middle East by 2025. We have done it before at the Milan Expo in 2015,” he said.

UCDA said it works with farmers to maintain the highest quality standards throughout the value chain.

“This includes training on good agronomic practices, post-harvest handling and distribution of inputs such as fertilizer,” it wrote on its Twitter handle.

It said coffee exports to the Middle East are 217,519 bags of 60kg which constitute 2.10% of total coffee exports in the financial year 2020/21 up from 30,934 bags or 0.74% of exports in the financial year 2016/17.

Of these, coffee exports to UAE in the financial year 2020/21 were 3,526 bags, it wrote. 

The coronavirus-delayed Expo opened its doors to exhibitors from 200 countries and international organizations on October 1, 2021, and will end on March 31.

Its theme is 'Connecting minds, creating the future', with the three sub-themes of mobility, opportunity, and sustainability. Uganda is taking part under the opportunity sub-theme.