May coffee exports up 43%

Jun 15, 2011

KAMPALA-Uganda’s coffee exports beat expectations to jump 42.8% to 253,270 60-kg bags in May from a year earlier as the harvesting season reached its peak, an industry source said on Monday.

KAMPALA-Uganda’s coffee exports beat expectations to jump 42.8% to 253,270 60-kg bags in May from a year earlier as the harvesting season reached its peak, an industry source said on Monday.

Uganda is one of Africa’s leading exporters of coffee beans and earnings from the crop constitute a major source of foreign exchange inflows. The country 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.

“Secondly, May coincided with the start of the second school term so farmers had to sell large stocks to get school fees for their children,” the source added.

Uganda had forecast shipping 210,000 bags in May. Harvesting is now underway in the south and southwestern parts of the country and both regions account for 45% of the country’s total annual coffee production.

The country earned $243.6m from the sales of the beans last season, down from $291.3m a year earlier. Robusta beans, used in instant coffee, account for about 85% of the country’s annual coffee output.

The country consumes less than 3% of its annual output, according to the Eastern African Fine Coffee Association.

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