KAMPALA – Statistics released on Monday by the national coffee body show that Uganda’s coffee export earnings reached in June US $24.32 million marking a 60% increase when compared to the same month last year, as a result of higher prices and a 30.6 percent rise in shipments abroad.
With regard to volumes, coffee exports totalled 244,789 bags in June 2007, up from 187,448 recorded in June last year, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in its monthly report.
The UCDA said robusta export volumes rose by 58 percent in the last season from October to June, while Arabica fell by almost 10 percent. The increase in Robusta is attributed to the replanting programme under the government’s intervention, while the drop in Arabica is the consequence of the off-year in the biennial cycle, it is said in the report.
Officials have urged producers to focus on maintaining raw bean quality. The east African country has become a leading player in quality robusta since a political crisis halved production in the former top grower
Ivory Coast.
[tags]coffee earnings, coffee exports, arabica coffee, African coffee, arabica coffee beans, robusta coffee beans[/tags]
