• Africa’s coffee exports hit record 1.18M tons in 2024/25, up 18.6%
  

• Ethiopia and Uganda drove nearly 80% of continent’s shipments
  

• Arabica prices rose 51%; Africa targets 20% global share by 2030
  

African countries exported 19.69 million bags of coffee, equivalent to 1.18 million tons, by the end of the 2024/2025 season, according to data from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) released on Wednesday. The figure represents an 18.6 percent year-on-year increase, marking a second consecutive year of growth and the first time African shipments have exceeded one million tons.

The ICO attributed this performance to strong harvests in major producing countries, which boosted exportable volumes, high prices on global exchanges and the release of unusually large inventories. Ethiopia and Uganda drove most of the increase. Ethiopia’s exports rose 27.3 percent to 442,200 tons, while Uganda’s climbed 29.6 percent to 495,600 tons.

Together, the two East African producers accounted for nearly 80 percent of the continent’s exports during the period. The ICO added that Ethiopia’s 2024/25 harvest is estimated at 9.91 million bags, while Uganda’s stands at 7.05 million bags. Overall African output rose 7.6 percent to 22.78 million bags.

On international markets, ICE data shows arabica prices in New York rose 51 percent over the year, closing at 8.26 dollars per kilogram on September 30, 2025, compared with 5.48 dollars per kilogram on October 1, 2024.

Africa’s strong export performance contrasts with the global picture. Worldwide shipments fell 0.3 percent to 139.01 million bags in 2024/2025. The ICO noted that South America was responsible for the overall decline, offsetting growth in other regions.

Although Africa represents only 11.6 percent of global coffee exports, several indicators point to a possible increase in its share in the coming years. At the 3rd Summit of the African Coffee G25 held last February in Dar es Salaam, producing countries committed to raising the continent’s share to 20 percent of global production by 2030, up from about 11 percent today.

At the national level, several countries are advancing their own expansion strategies. In April 2025, Tanzania, Africa’s third-largest exporter after Uganda and Ethiopia, began developing a plan to quadruple its production by 2030. In October 2025, Kenya announced the digitization of its coffee auctions as part of a national program to triple output over the next three years.

Stéphanas Assocle