Uganda loses Shs386b due to fall in global coffee prices

Uganda loses Shs386b due to fall in global coffee prices.

What you need to know:

Revenue from coffee exports reduced to $418m (Shs1.5 trillion) between April 2018 to April 2019 compared to $521b (Shs1.9 trillion) between April 2017 and April 2018.

Kampala. The continued slump in global coffee prices has seen Uganda lose more than Shs386b in export receipts in the last 12 months.
According to a Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) report released last week, revenue from coffee exports for the period between April 2018 and April 2019 fell to $418m (Shs1.5 trillion) form $521b (Shs1.9 trillion) in the same review period, representing a 19.68 per cent drop in value.
Mr Emmanuel Iyamulemye, the UCDA executive director, said the negative movement in global prices was on the account of higher than usual supply.
The report also indicates that in the period under review, exported coffee volumes dropped by 11.6 per cent.

A total of 4.1 million 60 kilogramme bags were exported in the period compared to 4.6 million 60 kilogramme bags the same period between April 2017 and April 2018. Uganda has been involved in a sustained campaign to grow coffee volumes to 20 million bags by 2022.
However, some experts such as Mr Gerald Sendaula, the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises chairman, has previously indicated that there is need to regulate the coffee value chain in Uganda to achieve better productions and yield.

“All things in the coffee production chain such as seedlings, among others, are supposed to be controlled. Once this is done, it can definitely take care of so many things,” he said recently.
The regulation, he said, will be crucial in a number of ways such as ensuring that there is market for what is produced as well as helping to implement the Coffee Road Map, which seeks to increase production.

Global movement
In April 2019, International Coffee Organisation composite indicator fell by 3.2 per cent to 94.42 cents of the dollar, which is the lowest monthly average since July 2006 when the price reached 88.57 cents of a dollar.