The price of live cattle in Uganda is up owing to recent drought, foregoing year-long quarantine and surging exports.
In late March 2025, Masindi, Kabarole (Fort Portal), and Kazo in western Uganda all witnessed uptick cow prices. Traders here were offering quotations of 1.3 million ($352) shillings per cow, up from from 1 million shillings ($272).
Besides, the doubling of the butcher’s fee for cattle slaughter to 10,000 shillings ($2.72) has exacerbated meat prices.
The fee increment has elevated beef prices from a former average of 12,000 shillings ($3.26) to 20,000 shillings ($5.43) a kg.
Drought is a scattered contributor of the increments for it recently affected only the pastoralist region in the east.
During the November 2024-March 2025 dry spell, Katakwi district in the Teso sub-region lost over 1,000 head of livestock.
Since then, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries has been assessing reservoirs to increase livestock water provision.
Quarantine Over
Notably, live cattle and beef remain expensive despite the lifting of a lengthy quarantine on cattle movement back in February 2025.
The quarantine in 32 districts over foot and mouth disease lasted a year since its January 2024 imposation.
Districts such as Mbale in the east, Kazo in the west and Nakasongola in the center were especially hit hard. Orders fell sharply despite the districts being the traditional cattle sources for butchers in the processing centers of Jinja and Kampala.
Regional Cattle Exports
The price surge in the domestic market also owes to unrelenting exports to a quintet of nations bordering Uganda.
With cattlle constituting 23.6% of all livestock and livestock product exports by Uganda, any shipment surge affects domestic supplies.
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan and south Sudan lead live cattle imports from Uganda.
Most commerce with regional countries takes place as informal cross-border trade that varies in intensity by year.
While in 2011 all cattle trade from Uganda to Kenya was via formal sales, in 2017 almost 100% was informal.
Whereas formal trade’s quotations are traceable, those for informal border-crossings are elusive due to their spot price nature.
Cattle products are however easy to track because of their dispatch in frozen quantity. They also tend to cost higher in formal than informal markets.
Informally, Kenya buys beef from Uganda at the lowest regional rate of $2.21 a kg, as of 2021, according to the Bank of Uganda. Sudan on the other hand commands the highest rate of $3.04 a kg (2021).
In regional formal trade, Rwanda in 2021 bought Uganda’s beef cheapest, at $4.15 a kg, while the D.R.C commanded $6.30.
Be it as it may, current trade focus is on the Uganda live cattle price and how it will behave onward. For the bigger picture, skim the statistics below.
Uganda Live Cattle Statistics
Uganda is one of the most important cattle powerhouses in the eastern and central African region. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, around 37% of households keep livestock mostly goats, cattle and chicken, as of 2024. The livestock sector in turn contributes 17% of the value addition of agriculture and 4.3% of the GDP, as of 2021. This according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
How many cattle are in Uganda?
The cattle corridor from southwest to northeast Uganda teems with between 14.2 million (2019) and 14.5 million (2021) head of cattle, annually. The cattle herd occupies at least 84,000 square kilometers of area any given year. The biggest concentration is in the northeastern pastoralist area while the most productive is the southwestern Ankole longhorn region.
Are cattle economically important in Uganda?
Although sheep at 17.4 million head (2021) are more by the numbers, it is cattle that contribute the most to the economy. In 2020, the country envisioned exports of around $225 millon in livestock, hides and skins, most of which from cattle.
How many cattle are for meat and export in Uganda?
Every 12 in 14 cows or bulls in Uganda are reared for meat production. Of the 14.2 million cattle in 2019 for example, 11.2 million of these were for meat production. In terms of exports, at least 2.821 million live kg of cattle reach other destinations annually, as of 2022.
What is Uganda’s world position in live animal exports in Africa?
Uganda ranked eleventh in Africa in 2022 for exports of cattle, goats, sheep, other bovines and poultry, worth $24,359. For the eastern Africa region, only Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti export more live animals, while worldwide the country ranks 66th.