Uganda’s cocoa prices up amid dwindling supplies
Earnings from cocoa are moving upwards, even as demand is surpasses supply. File photo
What you need to know:
Positive trend. According to UEPB, cocoa has become one of Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earners.
Uganda may be a small cocoa-producing country, but the recent increase in revenues points to growing exports of the commodity even as production lags behind.
Data from the Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB) indicate a growing trend in cocoa export revenues thus boosting the country’s total exports.
Latest export revenue figures indicate that in 2010, Uganda realised a total of $35.1 million (Shs87.5 billion) of out of the total 14,529 metric tonnes exported, indicating a rise from $15.7 million (Shs39.2 billion) earned from the 10,006 tonnes exported in 2007.
Mr Othieno Odoi, UEPB’s exports promotions officer while giving a validation of this performance said: “There has been a tremendous growth in export earnings of cocoa as a non-traditional export. When this is factored into the total export earnings of the country, it means a lot.”
However, experts in the sector are worried because the country is not producing enough to meet the increasing demand.
Production is not boosted, the country may lose out to global competition for a crop which fetches a premium price.
“There are too many buyers and exporters are getting poor margins. This coupled with high inflation, has made cocoa very expensive to purchase and not enough production to go round,” Mr Philip Bates the managing director of Esco (U) Limited-the leading Cocoa exporter in the country said.
But farmers are laughing their way to the bank because they are being paid a good price. Currently, for each kilogramme of cocoa, a farmer is paid between Shs4,000 and Shs4,400 depending on the location and quality of the beans.
Five years ago, the Ugandan government in collaboration with the Cocoa Development Organisation embarked on a campaign to boast production. In this, strategy a total of 35 million seedlings were supposed to be planted in a spread of seven years.
Cocoa growers.
Currently, there are about 10,000 registered organic cocoa farmers with a total estimates of about 15,000 farmers found in Bundibugyo alone. Farmers in all other districts combined may reach 20,000.
