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KAMPALA - Uganda exported merchandise worth $616.36 million in December 2023, the performance of the economy report for January 2024 released by the Ministry of Finance has indicated.

This represented a 0.2% increase in comparison to $615.05 million exported in November 2023. 

This increase was majorly attributed to higher export earnings from simsim, tobacco, and cotton registered during the month.

In comparison to the same month the previous year, merchandise exports grew by 65.8% from $371.81 million in December 2022 to $616.36 million in December 2023.

This was attributed to increased export earnings from gold, cotton, oil re-exports, and tobacco among others. 

Coffee exports during the month amounted to USD 65.94 million, a 6.7% decrease from 70.68 million registered in November 2023. This decrease was partly due to delayed harvests and drying of newly harvested coffee caused by heavy rains.

However, when compared to the same month the previous year, coffee exports grew by 10.8% from $59.54 million in December 2022, to USD 65.94 million in December 2023. This was partly attributed to the increase in coffee prices on the global scene.

During December 2023, Italy remained the major market for Uganda’s coffee exports accounting for 45% of the total coffee exports compared to 27.68 % recorded the previous month. This was followed by India, Germany, Morocco, and Spain at 12.05%, 11.47%, 6.12% and 5.96% respectively.

Merchandise imports

The report indicated that the value of merchandise imports decreased by 3.1% from $ 914.70 million in November 2023 to $886.24 million in December 2023.

This decrease was largely attributed to lower private sector imports particularly wood and wood products, electricity, petroleum products, animals and animal products, among others.

Conversely, a comparison with the same month last year shows that merchandise imports grew by 31.4% from USD 674.59 million in December 2022, to USD 886.24 million in December 2023.

This increase was mainly driven by increased import volumes for mineral products (excluding petroleum products), electricity, machinery equipment, and vehicles and accessories.

Origin of Imports

Asia remained Uganda’s largest source of imports in December 2023, accounting for 41.2% of the total imports. Within Asia, China and India were the major contributors, accounting for 61.9% of the imports from the region.

Other notable regions included the EAC, the Rest of Africa, and the Middle East, which accounted for 23.6%, 15.1%, and 10.2% of the total imports respectively.

Within the EAC region, Tanzania and Kenya emerged as the major sources of Uganda’s merchandise imports, accounting for 66.3% and 30.6% of the total imports from the region, respectively.