Coffee exports fetch sh104b

Aug 12, 2008

MAY and June coffee exports fetched 65.1m (sh104b), a Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) report has said.

By David Muwanga

MAY and June coffee exports fetched 65.1m (sh104b), a Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) report has said.

The report says 509,549 60-kg bags were exported to major export markets. The markets include the European Union (EU), Sudan, India, Singapore, Morocco, China, the US, Japan, Israel and Australia.

A total of 231,442 60-kg bags worth $29.5m were shipped to various destinations during May.

“This represented an improvement in volume and value of 25% and 69% respectively compared to May 2007 when 184,560 bags were recorded.”

Coffee exports from June 2007 to May 2008 were three million bags with 2.52 million of Robusta and 0.48 million bags of Arabica.

The total was 2.48 bags of Robusta coffee and 0.53 bags of Arabica coffee in a similar period last year.

“This reflects a net increase in volume of 21% where Robusta is up by 29.2% and Arabica is down by 9.4%. The improvement in the Robusta yields is attributed to favourable prices that translated into good husbandry practices and good weather.”

In June, a total of 278,107 60-kg bags of coffee worth $35.6m were exported.

This reflected a 13.6% and 46.6% rise in volume and value respectively compared to June 2007 when 244,789 bags were registered.

In contrast to the forecast of the month of 250,.000 bags, the performance was up by 11.2% due to the main harvesting season in Masaka and western regions beginning earlier than usual and the dry spell that facilitated coffee drying.

Coffee exports from July 2007 to June 2008 were 3.03m bags composed of 2.54m bags of Robusta and 0.49m bags of Arabica coffee.

“The total was 2.54m bags in the same period last year of which 1.97m were Robusta and 0.56m of Arabica. This reflects a 30% increase in overall volume of Robusta that went up by 27.5% whereas that of Arabica fell by 10%.”

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