Uganda’s coffee export earnings rose to an all-time high in June, boosted by rising prices for robusta beans.
Coffee exports for the month were valued at $162.4mn, up 79 per cent from a year earlier, the fastest growth in 30 months. The average kilo price of $4.06 was $0.35 higher than the previous month and $1.38 higher than a year ago, according to data from the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Uganda exported 667,037 60-kilo bags of coffee in June, an increase of 18.2 per cent on the same month last year. The exports, the most since last August, consisted of 614,486 bags of robusta beans — a 92 per cent share — up 25.5 per cent year-on-year. Arabica bean exports fell 29.5 per cent to 52,551 bags.
The increase in robusta coffee exports was the result of a “newly harvested bigger crop from Greater Masaka and [the] south-western regions,” the regulator said. “Arabica exports were however lower than last year due to a smaller harvest in [the] Elgon region,” it added.
Robusta bean exports earned $149.9mn, more than double the $73.9mn earned a year ago. This makes it two consecutive months in which receipts from robusta exports have more than doubled — in May they came in at $107.8mn, compared with $45.7mn a year ago — albeit at a slower pace (due to lower volume growth).
Earnings from arabica exports, on the other hand, dropped by 25.9 per cent to $12.4mn. UCDA said the average price for robusta beans was $4.07 per kilo, $0.4 higher than the previous month, while arabica fetched an average price of $3.94 per kilo, down 0.11 on the month.
