Onome Amuge
Uganda is optimistic global coffee prices are tilting upwards as Brazil, the world’s biggest supplier, struggles to curtail harsh weather conditions affecting its production.
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), the state-owned regulator of the coffee industry, has stated that the possible price increase is certain to boost the country’s production as the weather phenomenon threatens Brazil’s next crop.
The UCDA disclosed the East African country is currently implementing a coffee roadmap targeted at increasing exports from 3.5 million 60kg bags in 2016/17 to 20 million 6 kg bags in 2025, which is partly based on favorable weather and an increased supply of seedlings to farmers.
According to the International Coffee Organisation on Global Coffee Exports, Uganda is among the world’s top 10 producers and exporters of coffee, which is one of the 14 commodities identified by President Yoweri Museveni as critical to the country’s economic transformation in the wake of COVID-19. The UCDA also disclosed that about 1.7 million households in Uganda depend on coffee production.
Vincent Sempijja, the country’s minister of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries (MAAIF), stated that despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the coffee sub sector in Uganda has remained buoyant with coffee exports at the end of the financial year of 2019/20 hitting the highest level since liberalisation of the economy in 1994.
Matia Kasaija, the finance minister, also said that the country’s coffee export earnings reached a record 494 million dollars in the fiscal year ending on June 30.
