The build-up behind a Ugandan coffee FOB offer: what drives the farmgate floor

The build-up behind a Ugandan coffee FOB offer: what drives the farmgate floor

A Ugandan coffee FOB offer is built backwards from the farmgate floor, not forwards from the futures board. An exporter works back from what a buyer will pay, subtracts the milling, levies, certification and logistics between buying station and port, and what remains is the farmgate ceiling. That floor is published weekly by the Coffee Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), and caps every offer built on it.

What the farmgate floor is

The floor is indicative, not controlled. The Coffee Regulations 1994 state that a published indicative price has no binding effect on either grower or buyer, and serves only to indicate the approximate levels at which a grade may be traded.

The floor is quoted per kilogram at the stage the coffee has reached. The same regulations define Kiboko as unhulled coffee, that is coffee not removed from the dried cherry, and define Drugar as unwashed arabica.

Form	Farmgate range, UGX/kg, week of 30 September 2026	Where it sits in the Coffee Regulations 1994
Kiboko	5,000 to 6,000	Defined as unhulled coffee
FAQ	12,000 to 13,000	Not defined in the regulations
Arabica parchment	15,000 to 16,000	Listed among processing products
Drugar, clean	14,500 to 15,000	Defined as unwashed arabica

What sits inside the cost build-up

Cess is the visible charge. The National Coffee Act 2021 permits a levy not exceeding two percent on the Free on Rail or Free on Truck or other acceptable contract price of coffee exports, and a notice published by the Coffee Department records the rate rising from one percent to two percent from 1 July 2022.

Licensing and bonding come first. The Uganda Trade Portal procedure for a first coffee export lists a coffee export licence fee of UGX 1,500,000 and a performance bond estimated at USD 500, or two percent of the contract amount.

Certification adds timing, not a large fee: the Coffee Regulations 1994 require the quality certificate within 48 hours of an application. Hulling and grading then sit between the buying station and the export warehouse, and the regulations permit sale FOB Entebbe, FOB Mombasa or Dar es Salaam, or FOT at a processing factory.

How the floor constrains the offer

The floor responds to competition among buyers at the buying station, not to the quoted export level. In July 2026, the Coffee Department monthly report recorded farmgate averages of UGX 5,500 per kilogram for Kiboko, UGX 11,500 for FAQ, UGX 15,000 for arabica parchment and UGX 14,500 for Drugar, against an average export price of US$4.0 per kilogram for the month. That distance must carry every cost in between, and when the average export price slipped to US$3.9 in June 2026 the room narrowed.

Registered sales show the graded ladder. Sales registered on 29 September 2026 at UGX 3,915 per US dollar put Robusta Screen 18 at 171.01 US cents per pound, or UGX 14,760 per kilogram, with Screen 15 at UGX 14,328 and Screen 12 at UGX 14,069, per the Coffee Department daily market report.

An FOB quote is therefore a residual. If the FAQ floor stands at UGX 12,000 to 13,000 in a week, that money is committed at the buying station before hulling and cess, and the FOB figure must absorb the rest.

FAQ

Q: What sets the farmgate floor for Ugandan coffee?
A: The Coffee Department of MAAIF publishes weekly indicative farmgate ranges for Kiboko, FAQ, arabica parchment and clean Drugar. The Coffee Regulations 1994 state that these prices are indicative only and bind neither grower nor buyer.

Q: Is cess part of a Ugandan coffee FOB offer?
A: Cess is levied on the contract price. The National Coffee Act 2021 permits a charge not exceeding two percent on the Free on Rail or Free on Truck or other acceptable contract price, and the Coffee Department notice records the rate rising to two percent from 1 July 2022.

Q: Which delivery terms can a Ugandan coffee export use?
A: The Coffee Regulations 1994 permit sale from an export warehouse in Uganda, FOT or FOR at a processing factory, FOB Entebbe, or FOB Mombasa or Dar es Salaam, and other approved terms.