Gold boom pushes Uganda’s export earnings to $1.446m

  _______________

Uganda’s export earnings increased to $1,446.12 million in March 2026 from $992.98 million in March 2025, mainly driven by higher receipts from gold, oil re-exports, electricity and tobacco, among others.

This 45.6% increment on a year-on-year basis is contained in the ministry of finance’s performance of the economy report for April 2026.

Gold export earnings more than doubled, increasing by 121.1%c from $385.08m to $851.35m over the same period, largely due to higher global gold prices.

“There has been upward pressure on global gold prices as gold is perceived a safe haven in an increasingly uncertain global environment that has seen Central Banks diversify their reserve assets,” the report indicates.

In contrast, coffee export earnings declined to $173.36m in March 2026 from $198.94m in March 2025.

This decline was fully driven by lower prices whereby the average unit price of coffee was $4.31 per kilogram in March 2026, compared to $5.16 per kilogram in March 2025.

Volumes of coffee exported increased by 4.4% to 671,152 sixty-kilogram bags from 642,981 sixty-kilogram bags, on account of improved production.

This increase, however, was not sufficient to offset the decline in prices, and this led to a decline in coffee export receipts during the period under review.

When compared to February 2026, export earnings increased by 5.8% to $1,446.12m in March 2026 from $1,367.42m. The main drivers for this increase were gold, cotton, tea, electricity, sugar, oil re-exports, among others.