By John Ricks Kayizzi
Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has disclosed that coffee exports for January 2023 went up, amounting to 494,226 bags worth $67.35m (sh247b). Each bag weighed 60kg.
This is as compared to December 2022, when a total of 418,829 60-kilo bags of coffee valued at $59.54m (sh218b) were exported.
The January 2023 coffee exports comprised of 412,282 bags of Robusta valued at $49.57m and 81,944 bags of Arabica valued at $17.78m. This was an increase of 22.97% and 8.74% in quantity and value respectively compared to the same month last year.
“By comparing quantity of coffee exported by type in the same month of last Coffee Year (January 2022), Robusta increased by 30.91% and 23.84% in quantity and value respectively, while Arabica exports decreased by 5.75% and 18.85% in quantity and value respectively,” reads part of UCDA January report.
UCDA attributed the rise in production to traders who are trying to tap into higher global prices.
“Despite most regions experiencing drought, monthly coffee exports performance was higher than the previous year. This was mainly driven by exporters who off-loaded coffee from their warehouses as the global Robusta market started correcting upwards on account of reduced global supplies from major origins, Vietnam and Brazil,” it further said.
It added that Arabica exports were lower compared to the same month last year as this is an off-year of the biennial cycle characteristic of Arabica coffee.
Coffee exports for 12 months (February 2022-January 2023) totaled 5.72 million bags worth $865.34m compared to 6.72 million bags worth $741.03m the previous year (February 2021-January 2022). This represents a decrease of 15% in quantity but an increase of 17% in value.
