A specialty coffee from Uganda has achieved a record-breaking price at a London auction, signaling a potential shift in the global market's valuation of the origin. In early July 2026, a Natural Geisha lot from the Rwenzori Estate Farm sold for $350.02 per kilogram. The sale was the highlight of “The Paradigm Shift,” a three-day auction event organized by producer group Mountain Harvest and auction platform M-Cultivo.
The auction generated significant buyer interest, attracting over 1,000 bids and resulting in a weighted average price of $24.32 per kilogram across all lots, according to organizers. The top-priced lot was secured by the China-based buyer CHG. This market success follows Uganda’s recent high-profile role as the official Portrait Country at the World of Coffee trade event in Brussels, where it launched a national coffee brand identity.
Industry figures see the auction result as evidence of Uganda's growing capacity to produce high-value specialty lots. The event was designed to move beyond traditional pricing models and allow value to be determined by direct market competition. While specialty coffee remains a fraction of its total output, Uganda is already Africa's largest coffee exporter, having shipped 8.78 million 60-kilogram bags valued at $2.38 billion in the 12 months to April 2026, a 22 percent year-over-year volume increase.