Uganda Coffee Exports Fell 15% in March as Drought Cut Yields

April 8 (Bloomberg) — Coffee exports from Uganda, Africa’s biggest producer of the robusta variety of the crop, fell 15 percent in March after a drought cut yields, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said.

Shipments dropped to 217,809 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags from 256,579 bags a year earlier, the agency said in a draft report, details of which were provided to Bloomberg News today in the capital, Kampala. Exports in the month were valued at $22.4 million, it said.

The volume was 18 percent lower than the 264,373 bags exported in February and less than the forecast 220,000 bags because of drought, the authority said.

Uganda is Africa’s second-largest producer of coffee, after Ethiopia. Robusta accounts for about 85 percent of the East African nation’s annual output. The country experienced a drought last year that the Agriculture Ministry attributed to climate change.

The authority on Feb. 9 cut its export forecast for the 12 months through September to 3.1 million bags from an earlier forecast of 3.4 million bags.