Uganda Coffee May exports jump to 43 percent

Wednesday June 15, 2011

KAMPALA, (Reuters) - Uganda's coffee exports beat expectations to jump 42.8 percent to 253,270 60-kg bags in May from a year earlier as the harvesting season reached its peak.

Uganda is one of Africa's leading exporters of coffee beans and earnings from the crop constitute a major source of foreign exchange inflows. Uganda primarily cultivates the Robusta variety.

"This is a significant annual increase because first the season is more or less at its peak and the crop from the south and southwestern regions has been fairly good," the source at the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said.

Uganda had forecast shipping 210,000 bags in May.

Harvesting is now underway in the south and southwestern parts of the east African country and both regions account for 45 percent of the country's total annual coffee production.