By Spy Uganda
Uganda’s coffee exports declined 8% by volume in April compared with the same period last year, hurt by a drought and falling shipments to Sudan due to the conflict there, the sector regulator said.
Shipments of beans in April totalled 373,610 60-kilogram bags, the state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in a report seen by Reuters on Monday.
Uganda is Africa’s largest exporter of the beans, followed by Ethiopia, and primarily cultivates the robusta variety.
“The monthly coffee exports performance was lower than the previous year which was seen in robusta exports and was partly on account of an earlier drought coupled with reduced exports to Sudan,” UCDA said.
Sudan has long been one of the major destinations for Uganda’s coffee exports but shipments to the country plummeted from 18% of total exports in March to 11% in April, UCDA said.
An armed conflict between rival factions of the military government of Sudan began on 15 April 2023, when clashes broke out in cities, with the fighting concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of 16 May, at least 1,000 people had been killed and more than 5,100 others had been injured.
