Uganda’s coffee exports has increased in the last couple of years, fetching over US$2.25 billion, as innovators look at reducing export of raw beans to roasted and packaged products, targeting markets such as the UAE and Serbia. The global coffee market is valued at approximately US $465 billion, making it the second largest revenue earner worldwide after oil. Locally, coffee generated US $2 billion (UGX 8 trillion) from the export of 7.8 million 60kg bags in the FY2024/25, an increase from 6.1 million bags valued at US $1.1 billion (UGX 4 trillion) in the previous year (FY2023/24). This demonstrates that coffee significantly contributes to Uganda’s economy, accounting for 20.8% of total exports in FY 2024/25 and 15% of total exports in the last 10 years. Uganda is ranked as the sixth largest coffee producer globally and the second largest in Africa.
Additionally, projects are underway exploring commercial use of coffee flowers, long considered waste, in high-value supply chains, turning coffee flowers into oils. From beans to blooms, Uganda’s coffee story is being rewritten, one flower, one farmer, and one innovation at a time. As the world takes notice, farmers are proving that even the smallest blossom can spark big change. In the rolling hills of Kyegegwa District, Western Uganda, Ms Hazra Okem, Manager of Kyegegwa Coffee Uganda Ltd and a proud Robusta coffee farmer, is quietly leading a transformation that is redefining how value is created in Uganda’s most prized crop, and who gets to share in it. For generations, men have dominated coffee income, while women provided most of the farm labour. Now, the emergence of a new trade in coffee flowers is rewriting that story, offering women their first direct stake in the coffee economy. Okem says this new venture is shifting mindsets, giving women both income and visibility in a business they have long sustained from the shadows.
Turning waste into wealth
It all began when researchers and private partners explored how to turn what was once discarded into something of value. Coffee flowers, delicate, fragrant, and fleeting, were previously left to rot after blooming. Today, they are being collected, dried, and processed into ingredients for perfumes, teas, and natural extracts.
What started as a small experiment soon bloomed into a viable business. Okem recalls her first sale brought in Shs1.2 million at Shs15,000 per kilogram of dried coffee flowers, a sum that changed how she, and her community, viewed the coffee plant.
She quickly realised that women could earn more from what had long been overlooked.
Science meets the soil
Behind this innovation is a unique partnership between Ugandan farmers and researchers from the University of Aalborg in Denmark. Associate Professor Helene Balslev Clausen leads the research component of the project, combining scientific insight with farmer experience. ‘We have been working with over 10,000 farmers, mostly women and youth, to understand their challenges and develop solutions together,’ she explains. ‘It is not top-down training; it is co-creation.’ Her team has run field experiments and lab analyses to improve flower harvesting, storage, and plant health. Through this work, pest infestations like the coffee borer beetle have dropped from 40 percent to about 10 percent in some communities. One major breakthrough has been identifying the precise timing for picking flowers, within a two- to three-day window, after they have fed the coffee beans but before they wilt. Training women to identify this ‘sweet spot’ ensures both flower and bean quality. ‘The farmers have gone beyond our expectations,’ Clausen says. ‘They even devised smarter, more efficient ways to harvest than we initially thought possible.’
A women- centered enterprise
Kyegegwa Coffee Uganda Ltd now operates as a shareholding company, bringing together women farmers who collect and deliver flowers to a central facility. There, the blooms are dried using solar technology and sold in bulk to local and international buyers. Because coffee flowers fade fast, collaboration and timing are key. The women coordinate their harvesting schedules and share labour to ensure no blossom goes to waste. The cooperative spirit, Okem says, has been just as transformative as the income itself. Clausen adds that the model was carefully designed so flower picking could be easily integrated into women’s daily routines, a source of extra income, not extra burden.