Ugandan Coffee Shipments Declined by 7.5% Last Month As Drought Cut Yields
Coffee exports from Uganda, Africa’s largest producer of the beans after Ethiopia, declined 7.5 percent in June after a drought cut yields, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said.
Shipments fell to 234,956 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags, from 254,026 bags a year earlier, the authority said in an e- mailed report today. Export volumes are 12 percent above an earlier forecast because of a larger crop in Uganda’s southern and southwestern regions, the agency said.
Export income from coffee sales in June was little changed at $23 million compared with a year earlier, and above the $18.2 million earned in May following an improvement in global prices, according to the report.
The authority on June 11 cut its export forecast for the 12 months through September to 2.8 million bags from an earlier estimate of 3.1 million bags. Uganda experienced a drought last year which the government attributed to climate change.
Output in the East African nation has fallen from more than 4 million bags in the 1996-97 season after coffee wilt disease destroyed the crop. New planting and improved farm management may help Uganda boost output to 4.5 million bags by 2015, the authority has said.
Uganda is Africa’s biggest producer of the robusta variety of coffee, which is mainly used in instant coffee, while arabica beans are brewed by specialty companies, such as Starbucks Corp.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net
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