Coffee exports rose in July at the fastest pace since August 2023 as revenue surged to yet another record high on strong global prices for robusta beans.
Uganda exported 821,593 60-kilo bags of coffee in the month, up 26.2 per cent year on year, according to government figures. The bump was due to freshly harvested coffee from the Greater Masaka region and the south-western part of the country.
Robusta shipments rose 22.2 per cent from a year ago to 722,444 bags, while arabica exports fell 17.9 per cent to 49,149 bags, hit by a small off-season crop in the Mount Elgon region.
Coffee export earnings surged to $210.5mn from $105.9mn in the same month last year, surpassing the record high set in June, largely due to a $104.6mn jump in robusta receipts to $197.9mn.
The increase was in line with high global coffee prices due to dry weather in Brazil and Vietnam, which is expected to affect coffee yields and potentially create a supply shortfall in the 2024/2025 coffee year starting in October, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said.
Robusta coffee futures on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, the global benchmark, have risen as much as 70 per cent in the past year on lower harvests in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s top coffee and robusta producers respectively, and Indonesia, a major robusta exporter.
Uganda is Africa’s largest coffee exporter and the second largest producer after Ethiopia. Coffee is the country’s second most valuable export after gold.
