SONA: How Uganda’s exports fared during the fiscal year

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Uganda’s export earnings hit $1.45b in the 12 months to March 2026, up 45.6% from $993m a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.

President Yoweri Museveni will almost certainly cite the growth during the State of the Nation Address (SONA). The SONA is a constitutional mandate under Article 101 (1), delivered at the beginning of each session of Parliament.

The numbers show that Gold is doing most of the heavy lifting on exports. Earnings from the reserve asset more than doubled, jumping 121% from $462.8m to $851.4m.

Uganda now operates nine gold refineries producing gold at 99.9% purity, which meets international market standards, and the government has been deliberate about this shift, pushing for local value addition rather than simply shipping raw ore.

The export boom has also been riding historic global demand for gold, driven by geopolitical uncertainty, inflationary pressures, and sustained central bank buying, with prices at record highs entering 2026.

Coffee, a source of livelihood for millions of smallholder farmers, seems to be having a harder time, according to the data. Earnings fell from $214.4m to $173.4m despite higher export volumes, because prices dropped sharply, from $5.16 per kilogram to $4.31.

The Ministry of Agriculture has attributed the price crash to a production surge from Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s two largest coffee producers, which has pushed global benchmarks lower. Currently, Uganda is shipping more coffee but earning less for it.

Beans jumped from $1.74m to $4.39m. Tobacco more than doubled, from $2.62m to $4.09m. Cotton has climbed to $2.45m. Tea and flowers held steady, while fish exports slipped slightly, from $12.1m to $10.3m.