Restructuring Uganda's Coffee Industry: Why Going Back to Basics Matters

After experiencing a boom during the mid‐1990s, the performance of Uganda's coffee industry has been disappointing. Most existing analysis sees the sector's problems as quality deterioration, a poor marketing position in the global market, a weak regulatory framework, and poor infrastructure. Recommendations range from setting up a coffee auction to increasing the share of specialty coffees. This article concludes that such advice has been largely inconsistent with the stylised facts of the Uganda coffee industry, and it argues that coffee wilt disease and the effectiveness of the coffee replanting programme are the two key issues on which policymakers and the donor community should focus their activities and allocate their resources.