Ugandan coffee is making progress in the Russian market, Uganda's ambassador to Moscow, Moses Kizige, has said.

“Our biggest export here right now is coffee and they know our coffee is the best in the world,” Kizige said in an interview with New Vision Online at the Ugandan Embassy in central Moscow.

"We still face stiff competition from other coffee-producing countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica and Ethiopia. Our coffee on the Russian market is now at 5% and is mainly used to support the changing of the aroma of all the other coffee. So, we are negotiating for better deals and we have told them what we can offer,” he said.

He added that one Ugandan trader airlifts half a tonne of coffee to Moscow every week on a Turkish Airline and still makes massive profits because of the high demand for Ugandan coffee.

Two Ugandan traders have so far opened up coffee shops in Moscow and St Petersburg, according to Kizige and they are encouraging others to do the same.

“We still have challenges because of the sanctions. We can’t use the sea. So, transportation is expensive. Once sanctions are done, we shall have more coffee exported here,” Kizige said.

Major bottlenecks to trade

President Yoweri Museveni at the July second Russia Africa Summit, among others, used the imbalance in the coffee earnings globally to denounce Africa’s continued exportation of raw materials as ‘modern slavery and the remaining major bottleneck of neo-colonialism

He expounded that whereas the global coffee business annually is $460b, the world coffee-producing countries’ portion is only $25b while the entire continent of Africa with many coffee-producing countries gets just $2.5b due to the exportation of unprocessed coffee.

Based on this, Museveni called on Russia and other developed allies of Africa to back the continent in doing away with the exportation of raw materials by supporting its industrialisation agenda.

The embassy, Kizige said, has also conducted trade shows and exhibitions. 

“Our cocoa is strongly wanted here, then fruits, pineapples, avocado, mangoes, people are fighting for them,” he said.

Scramble for fish

Fresh fish directly from Uganda, he said, flows in once in a while and that people scramble for it.

“It is flown in directly to St Petersburg and it is immediately bought. People know and wait for the days it is coming and they wait for it and they take it. No matter what amount is brought in, the tilapia is all immediately bought,” he said.

Russia being the manufacturer of fertilisers, Kizige said they are now encouraging Ugandan traders when they go to Russia to return with fertilisers and that the same message is being given to Russians who come to Uganda to go back with coffee, tea and other products.

“Trade is increasing significantly, we hope if the Russia-Ukraine conflict ends and sanctions are removed, we should move faster. We see a brighter future,” he said.

He added that the mission is boosting efforts to encourage more Russian tourists to visit Uganda.

“We had an expo here and Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) officials came and we marketed Uganda and the number of visas we issue have increased and to be a bit vivid, we can talk about 15 tourists a month travelling to Uganda and the increase is significant compared to the record we found,” he said.

The number of Russians willing to directly invest in Uganda, Kizige said, has increased: "We have those willing to invest in fertiliser production, we have one who wants to invest in the drying of fruits and is ready to invest $10m".

“We are looking for partnership between National Enterprise Corporation of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and Kamanzi truck manufacturers to produce trucks and electric vehicles. We are moving, we are opening our market and we want Russia to open their market for us more,” he said.

Learn Russian

Kizige encouraged more Ugandans to learn Russian to facilitate trade between the two countries.

“The Russian language centre has been opened at Makerere University and encourages people to go and learn Russian because the biggest impediment has been language. There are not many Russians who speak English and in official business, they don’t speak English, they stick to their Russian language,” he said.

The Ugandan diplomat said they are currently coordinating with Odrek Rwabwogo of the Presidential Advisory on the Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) to organise an export forum for Russian and Ugandan traders in Moscow to discuss how to exploit the available opportunities between the two countries.

Kizige assured Ugandans that the Russian Federation was safe and that they should not fear taking up several business and other opportunities in the country.

“And I want to assure Ugandans that Russians and non-Russians are treated equally and I'm talking from my personal experience nothing to worry about,” he said.

He described the Uganda-Russia relations as consistently warm right from the Soviet Union days to date.

“As President Museveni always puts it, when the African National Congress was formulated in 1912, by 1917 it got support from the Soviet Union as it supported African liberation movements and for us in Uganda, we engaged a lot,” he said.

He added; “During the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, Russia was big enough and a European country, but did not annex any part of Africa to colonise it. We don’t have any record of any slaves transferred from Africa to the Russian Federation, that is, you don’t see any black Russians except for us Africans and African Americans who come to visit.”

At the Russia-Africa Summit, Uganda left St Petersburg with a lot to celebrate: “We had very good talks at bilateral level as I said our scholarships went up from 50 to 200 and the fully funded vocational education slots through Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone (Alabuga Start) for Ugandan females were increased from 218 to 1000 next year.

We are going to accelerate the nuclear power project on the banks of the River Nile in Buyende district at a place called Kabalongo.

The two governments are going to work together to see to it that the projects are actualised as soon as possible,” he said.

According to Kizige, a team will soon leave Russia for Kampala to engage the Ugandan government officials.