Uganda responsible for Africa’s coffee export decline in February: Report

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda is responsible for the continent’s decline in coffee exports in February 2022, a new report by the International Coffee Organization (ICO) indicates.

The March 2022 Coffee Market report shows that exports from Africa fell from 1.11 million bags in February 2021 to 975,000 bags in February 2022, representing a decline of up to 11.9 percent.

The report further notes that for first five months of this year, coffee exports have totaled only 5.01 million bags, compared to 5.05 million bags during the same period of the coffee year 2020/2021.

“Uganda is the main reason for the region’s sharp drop in the February exports, which is attributed to lower production stemming from droughts in some parts of the coffee-growing regions of the country,” the report reads in part.

The world coffee body reveals that although exports are still growing for the first five months of the coffee year 2021/2022, and have already reached to 2.4 million bags compared to 2.29 bags during the same period last year, Uganda’s exports fell by up to 20.2 percent.

“In February, exports of Uganda fell to 449,000 bags as compared with 563,000 bags in February 2021,” the report says.

On March 17th, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem during Uganda Coffee Day, announced Uganda’s commitment to increase the volume of exported coffee and coffee products to China and directed the Uganda Coffee Development Authority to increase the production of coffee to 20 million kilograms by 2025.

However, just three years to the targeted quantity, the report by the world coffee body implies that Uganda is not close to attaining even a quarter of the ambitious quantity of coffee it intends to export.

Overall, ICO reveals that the world exports of green beans of coffee in February 2022 totaled only 9.88 million bags compared to 10.24 million bags exported in the same period in 2021.

For the general global decrease in coffee export, the report blames Brazil, which it says is still dealing with container and shipping problems along with poor yields during the Arabica “off-season” and the Colombian Milds, whose exports dropped from 1.32 million bags in February 2021 to 1.06 million bags in February 2022.

“A decrease in shipments of Brazilian Naturals is the main reason behind the drop in global exports of green beans, with the country’s shipment falling …in February 2022 to 3.35 million bags from 3.60 million bags in February 2021.”

“Columbian Milds also contributed to the fall in the global exports of green beans, decreasing by 19.6% to 1.06 million bags from 1.32 million bags over February 2022 to February 2021, and by 12.7% to 5.41 million bags in October-February 2022/21 from 6.20 million bags in October-February 2020/21.”

Worldwide, consumption of coffee is predicted to rise to 170.3 million, 60 kilogram bags compared to 164.9 million in the coffee year 2020/2021, an excess of 3.1 million bags produced.

“Supply and demand trends may be affected by variations due to the downturn in the world economy, increased cost of inputs and production as well import and consumption due to the conflict in Ukraine,” the report says.

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URN