Export earnings drop
Key driver. Fish exports were a key driver in export earnings for the period ended September. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- According to a Uganda Coffee Development Authority report, Uganda’s coffee exports attracted an average weighted price of $1.59 per kilogramme, a cent higher than $1.58 per kilogramme earned in August.
- Fish exports, during the period, fetched $11.7m (Shs43b) from a total 2,372 tonnes. This was a decline from $14.4m (Shs53b) registered in the period ended August.
Exports for the period ending September experienced an 8 per cent decline, according to the Central Bank.
The Bank of Uganda report released early this week, indicates that earnings from exports for the period ending September stood at $296m (Shs1 trillion) compared to $326m (Shs1.2 trillion) in August.
Despite the decline, gold, which has become a key export commodity for Uganda among others such as coffee, fish and related products, tobacco and maize, stood out as some of the commodities that fetched impressive earnings during the period to September.
“In the period a total of 1,530 kilogrammes of gold were exported out of the country,” the report shows noting that the exports were less than the 1,755 kilogrammes that were exported in August.
Mr John Lwere, the Uganda Export Promotion Board trade and information executive, said they were “still studying the trends in performance” noting that gold is gradually becoming part of Uganda’s leading exports.
The growth has been hinged on the entry of key gold refining companies, among them African Refinery and Bullion Refinery, which export most of the refined gold mainly to United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Coffee came second to gold, fetching $34m (Shs125b), which was realized from about 362,216 kilogramme bags.
However, receipts from the commodity, according to the report, fell by 33 per cent from the $46.3m (Shs171b) earned in the period ended August. Uganda is Africa’s leading coffee exporter and is among the top ten-global coffee producers but has suffered a wave of low international prices for over a year.
According to a Uganda Coffee Development Authority report, Uganda’s coffee exports attracted an average weighted price of $1.59 per kilogramme, a cent higher than $1.58 per kilogramme earned in August.
Fish exports, during the period, fetched $11.7m (Shs43b) from a total 2,372 tonnes. This was a decline from $14.4m (Shs53b) registered in the period ended August.
Uganda’s fish exports are mainly shipped to European Union, US, China and parts of DR Congo.
