Coffee exports fell for the third consecutive month in January due to a small arabica crop in the Elgon region, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, the sector regulator.
The country exported 481,586 60-kilo bags of coffee in the month, down 2.2 per cent on the year, UCDA said. This included 403,508 bags of robusta beans and 78,078 bags of arabica beans, down 2.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively. In the previous month, December 2023, exports of robusta beans increased by 1.7 per cent, while exports of arabica coffee fell by 26.4 per cent.
Export earnings for the month totalled $85.6mn, down 2.6 per cent year-on-year. Robusta bean exports earned $68.2mn, an increase of 37.5 per cent year-on-year, while arabica exports declined by 1.6 per cent.
In the year leading up to January, coffee exports totalled 6.1mn bags valued at $983.4mn, a 7 per cent increase in volume and a 14 per cent increase in value compared to the previous period’s 5.7mn bags worth $865.8mn.
