Uganda sees coffee prices supporting 2015 target : KAMPALA - Uganda expects good coffee prices to support a government aim to boost output to a targeted 4.5 million 60-Kg bags of exported coffee annually by 2015, from a forecast 3.1 million bags in 2010/11, the regulator said.
Uganda is one of Africa's major exporters of coffee and earnings from the crop are a key source of foreign exchange inflows for east Africa's third-largest economy. Farmers in the country mostly cultivate the Robusta bean.
"The prevailing prices are supportive to the coffee production campaign, which envisages Uganda's exportable production hitting 270,000 tonnes (4.5 million bags) by the year 2015," the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in a report seen by Reuters on Monday.
The government campaign targets helping farmers access cheap credit and agricultural inputs as well as funding research into high-yielding hybrid coffee plants.
Uganda's coffee output peaked in the late 1990s when the country exported an average of 4.2 million bags annually. However, disease ravaged subsequent crops, cutting output to a low of 2 million bags in the 2005/2006 (Oct-Sep) season.
UCDA forecasts Uganda will export 3.1 million bags in the 2010/2011 season from last year's 2.67 million bags.
Farm gate prices have risen to average 2000 shillings ($0.844) per kilogram of dry, unprocessed Robusta beans from 1700 shillings in October, the regulator said. It added Uganda's Robusta exports have been declining because of unfavourable weather conditions and outbreaks of pests.
Uganda earned $28.69 million from 237,747 bags exported in December, which was a 30.6 percent rise from earnings in the same month a year ago, UCDA said in the report.
In the first quarter of the 2010/2011 (Oct-Dec) coffee year, Uganda shipped 692,485 bags, down from 705,277 exported in the same quarter last season.
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