Uganda’s coffee exports in July increased by 12 per cent from a year earlier, according to figures from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, aided by a jump in robusta bean shipments.
The coffee authority said exports totalled 645,832 60-kg bags, up from 575,813 bags a year earlier, the highest export volume since August 2021.
It valued July’s exports at $104.9 million, reflecting a 25.7 percent increase from the $83.4 million recorded last year. This marks the fastest growth rate in 13 months.
The rise in the coffee export numbers is the result of an increase in robusta coffee shipments. This is due to “a good crop harvest in [the] south-western region and the prevailing good prices on the global scene, which prompted exporters to release their stocks,” said UCDA.
Robusta coffee exports rose 11.4 per cent to 586,871 60-kilogram bags, accounting for 90.9 per cent of total exports. They were valued at $92.6m, 29.8 per cent higher than last year.
Arabica shipments rose by 20.3 per cent in quantity and 2.6 per cent in value.
Exports for the first ten months of the current coffee season were 4,817,768 60-kg bags, a drop of 0.6 per cent from the previous period. Receipts are also down 1.4 per cent to $723.8 million. UCDA blamed the decline on “drought and increasing incidence of pests and diseases in robusta growing areas.”
Coffee was Uganda’s highest earning export commodity in 2022, overtaking gold, with total shipments valued at $859.5 million and increasing by 19.5 per cent from the previous year, according to preliminary estimates from the Bank of Uganda. Uganda’s goods exports were valued at $4.3bn in 2022, down 4.8 per cent from the previous year.
Gold exports dropped significantly, from 18,990kg in 2021 to a mere 3,897kg in 2022. This led to a plummet in revenue from $1,033.4 million to $200.6 million.
The contraction in gold exports followed the refusal of gold traders to export the metal, a protest against a tax on mineral exports introduced in 2021. The tax imposed a five per cent export levy on processed gold and a ten per cent levy on the value of unprocessed gold exported from Uganda.
Only about ten per cent of the gold exported by Uganda is mined locally. Most of it is smuggled into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo, refined, and exported – mainly to the United Arab Emirates.
In March, the minister of energy and mineral development, Ruth Nankabirwa, directed the Uganda Revenue Authority to suspend the levy collection, unlocking a resurgence in gold exports.
Gold exports surged to $279.9 million in the first three months of the year, rebounding from zero recorded in the corresponding period the previous year, BoU data show. In the second quarter, estimates for gold exports reached $654.8 million, a stark contrast to the lack of gold receipts in the same quarter of 2022.
Coffee shipments, on the other hand, fell 4.7 per cent year-on-year to $204.9 million in the first quarter, according to the figures. They slowed down to $223.8 million in the second quarter, a reduction of 1.7 per cent from the same period in 2022.
