Uganda to revise 09/10 coffee export forecasts

5/2/2010

Java Times Caffé Blog
Fri Feb 5, 2010

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda will revise its 2009/10 (Sept-Oct) coffee export forecast from an original 3.4 million bags due to drought, a source at state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said on Friday.

The east African country is one of Africa’s biggest producers of the beans and predominantly cultivates robusta variety.

It produced 3.06 million bags in the September 2008 to October 2009 season.

“We’re meeting on Monday (February  with traders to discuss the prevailing situation and various factors likely to impact output like the drought and come up with a new forecast,” the source told Reuters.

He declined to specify what direction the revision would go. Uganda experienced a severe and prolonged drought last year which disrupted bean development.

A draft UCDA report said the drought had “hit at a critical time when the coffee beans were forming. Many of them never fully developed, they just shrank and dropped off trees prematurely and that negatively impacted the harvest.”

According to the report, Uganda exported a total of 264,314 bags in January, earning $25.4 million compared to 332,211 bags exported in January 2009 that fetched $30.7 million.