Coffee is Uganda's second-largest export by value and the household income of an estimated 1.8 million smallholder families. Roughly a third of the crop is sold into the European Union. From 30 December 2025, none of it will be allowed into that market unless the exporter can prove, plot by plot, that the beans were not grown on land deforested after December 2020.
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is meant to attack the climate cost of imported commodities. Ugandan farmers do not dispute the goal. What they dispute is who pays for the compliance.
The traceability squeeze
In Mbale's Bugisu sub-region and around Kasese, coffee typically moves from a smallholder to a village agent, to a middleman, to a primary processor, and only then to an exporter. EUDR requires the geolocation of every plot to travel with the beans through that entire chain. NTV Uganda has reported farmers warning that the rollout is arriving faster than the digital tools, extension services and cooperatives needed to comply.
They want a GPS point for each of my trees. I can give it to them. But who pays for the phone, the airtime, the training?
What the government is doing
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has been running a national traceability system pilot and mapping farms with support from partners including the Solidaridad Network and TechnoServe. Officials say more than half of registered exporters can now produce compliant documentation. Independent research published in 2025, including work by Southern Voice, warns that the smallholder end of the chain - the majority of the actual growers - is still the weakest link.
The community stakes
If the transition is handled badly, EUDR risks pushing small farmers into lower-price regional markets while a handful of large exporters capture the EU premium. Handled well, with district-level registration and cooperative buying, it can formalise land rights, reward long-standing agroforestry practice and lift farm-gate prices. Uganda's negotiators in Brussels are asking for a phased approach for smallholders. On the hillsides, farmers are asking for the training to reach them before the deadline does.
- EUDR threatens market access for Ugandan coffee farmers - NTV Uganda
- Mbale farmer voices concerns as Uganda prepares for EU Coffee compliance deadline - The Independent Uganda
- Potential impacts of EU Deforestation Regulation on Smallholder Coffee Farmers - Southern Voice
- European Union rules brew storm in Uganda's coffee cup - Daily Monitor
