UGANDA – Uganda earned US$36.93million in April 2020 from exports of its top earning crop, Coffee, with the total exported amount being 359,973 bags of 60kg, representing a 17.78% quantity and a subsequent 22.90% rise in value from amounts registered the same month last year.
According to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority report, the quantities exported comprised of 262,676 bags worth US$22.55 million of Robusta. This was an increase in both quantity and value of 19.78% and 12.95% respectively, realized in April 2019.
For Arabica coffee, 97,297 bags were exported fetching US$ 14.38 million. Similarly, Arabica exports also registered a percentage increase in both quantity and value (12.68% and 42.58%) respectively.
The increase in exports has been attributed to the increased production on account of fruition of the newly planted coffee, the season notwithstanding.
Exporters also drew down on their stocks in the midst of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Exports were to some extent affected by logistical issues due to the country’s lockdown.
Exports to Italy maintained the highest market share with 25.51% compared with 28.48% last month. It was followed by Germany 17.55%, Sudan 15.31% and India 10.44%.
Coffee exports to Africa amounted to 77,747 bags, a market share of 16.28%compared to 77,972 bags the previous month.
Europe remains the main destination for Uganda’s coffees with a 66.8% imports share.
According to the report, aggregated coffee exports for the first 10 months (Financial Year 2019/20) amounted to 4,243,282-kilo bags worth US$413.53 million compared to 3,481,328 60-kilo bags worth US$350.26 million the previous year. This represents 21.89% and 18.06% increase in both quantity and value respectively.
Cumulatively in twelve months, (May 2019-April 2020), a total of 4.93 million 60-kg bags worth US$ 478.47 million were exported.
Globally, coffee exports amounted to 11.06 million bags in March 2020, compared with 11.49 million in March 2019.
Exports in the first 6 months of Coffee Year 2019/20 (Oct 2019 to Mar 2020) have decreased by 3.9% to 61.96 million bags compared to 64.50 million bags in the same period in 2018/19.
There is uncertainty of future demand for coffee in this Covid 19 period although there are also concerns over disruptions to the supply chains due to many countries being under lockdown.
