Uganda earns sh11b from coffee exports

Wednesday, 21st September, 2011

Uganda’s coffee export earnings in 11 months of the 2010/2011 (October to September) season rose 64.3% from the same period last year, boosted by good weather, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said in a report on Monday.

Uganda, which primarily cultivates Robusta, is Africa’s leading exporter of the beans and their earnings are a key source of foreign exchange.

State-run UCDA said Uganda earned $400.3m (about sh11.1b) between October last year to August this year, up from $243m earned in the same period of the 2009/2010 coffee year.

The report said the surge in earnings was "ascribed to good weather and the rise in coffee prices on global market."

About 309,300 60-kilogramme bags of coffee were shipped in August, bringing the total cumulative bean exports this season to 2.81 million bags, UCDA said.

"The improvement is more pronounced in Robusta, especially from the South and Southwest crop. This is attributed to the timely rainy season that salvaged the crop from the earlier severe drought," said UCDA.

Southern and Southwestern Uganda regions account for 45% of the country’s total annual coffee production.

UCDA forecasts Uganda will export three million bags of coffee in the 2011/2012 coffee year which begins next month.

Over the course of next year, the report said, Uganda would complete distributing coffee wilt disease resistant varieties to farmers and experiment with new breeds that can withstand drought.

UCDA had earlier projected a 46% rise in export receipts.

Reuters