Uganda expects its coffee exports in the 2016/2017 season to increase by 13.5 percent helped by favourable weather in a major growing area, an industry body official said on Friday. Shipments over the next crop year which begins in October will likely rise to 4.2 million 60-kilogram bags from 2015/16's revised forecast of 3.7 million, said David Muwonge, head of marketing at the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farmer Enterprises (NUCAFE).
The region mostly grows Robusta coffee, the dominant variety in Uganda, which is also Africa's largest coffee exporter followed by Ethiopia, according to data from the International Coffee Organisation. "If we have good rains now, and not a prolonged January-March drought, then the southwestern crop should be good," Muwonge told Reuters.
Muwonge said an increase in domestic coffee drinking in Uganda would slow export volume growth in the near term, even though maturing new trees should boost overall production. Between 5-6 pct of all coffee produced in the country is consumed locally and Muwonge said NUCAFE calculated that rate would climb to about 10 percent over the next five years. Coffee drinking is fashionable with Uganda's expanding middle class, pushing up domestic consumption.
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