Coffee bean exports from Uganda, Africa’s largest shipper of the commodity, rose at their fastest rate in three months in March on the back of a bumper robusta crop.
Exports rose 19 per cent year on year to 572,839 bags, according to figures from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. Export receipts, on the other hand, rose 16 per cent from a year earlier to $53.5m, equivalent to Shs193.9bn.
The increase in shipment volumes follows a bumper harvest of robusta beans as newly planted coffee trees continue yielding and favourable weather, the regulator said.
Robusta bean exports increased by 26.9 per cent from the previous year to 494,223 bags – a bag is 60 kilograms – while their value was up 23 per cent to $41m. Arabica exports – the arabica crop is in the lower-yielding half of its two-year cycle – fell 14.2 per cent in volume and 2.3 per cent in value.
Coffee exports for the twelve months to March were 5.6m bags worth $523m, compared to 4.8m bags valued at $471.8m in the same period last year.
Exports could rise to 500,000 bags in April “as the main harvesting period in [the] Greater Masaka and South Western regions intensifies,” the regulator said. It added that harvesting and drying “might be hampered by rain” in rural areas.
