NOTE: July 2015 to June 2016 exports totalled 3.56 million bags worth $352 million (Shs1.1 trillion)
Crane Bank Ltd. and a collection of other financial firms are not the only Ugandan sectors having a strange existence this year.
Coffee farmers in the highland areas on the slopes of Mount Elgon in the East and Mt. Rwenzori alongside the exporters in Kampala are continuously counting losses, extending declines for a third year as poor weather hurt the crop.
The latest records indicate a decline in both volumes and value. Shipments from Oct. 1, 2015 through September fell to 3.32 million 60-kilogram bags from 3.46 million bags a year earlier
Uganda’s exports, the largest in Africa fell 4.1 percent in the 2015-16 season according to figures from Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Exports in the season fell below both the regulator’s initial projection of 3.8 million bags and a revised figure of 3.6 million bags.
David Muwonge, deputy executive director of the Kampala-based National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises, said by phone from the capital. “The weather has been erratic and significantly affected output.”
He adds that however, when more coffee is planted and attended to with care from tree to port, it will mean less exposure to natural crop fluctuation cycles for all actors involved in the value-chain.
Earlier, Coffee exports for 12 months, which also marked end of the 2015/16 financial year (July 2015 to June 2016), totalled 3.56 million bags worth $352 million (Shs1.1 trillion)
Uganda plans to plant 900 million new coffee trees in the three years through June 2019 to boost production.
