A farmers harvesting coffee. Uganda's coffee exports have been rising over the last three years.

Uganda earned $75.09 million (about Shs264 billion) from coffee exports in August 2021, the highest ever recorded in a single month in the country’s history.

According to the August report by Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Uganda exported 700,990 60-kilo bags.

Of these, 636,458 bags were of Robusta valued at US $65.24 million and 64.532 bags of Arabica valued at US$ 9.85 million.

“This was an increase of 34.89% and 63.06 % in quantity and value respectively, compared to the same month last year,” UCDA states.

“The quantity of coffee exported in August was the highest in a single month surpassing the previous month’s exports, while the total ex-port quantity in 12 months was the highest in 30 years,” the report adds.

In comparison to the quantity of coffee exported in August 2020, this year, Robusta increased by 39% and 70.98% in quantity and value respectively, while Arabica exports increased by 4.44% and 24.80% in quantity and value, respectively.

UCDA says the increasing Robusta exports during the month compared to the previous year were due to newly planted coffee which started yielding supported by favourable weather.

“This was also compounded by a positive trend in global coffee prices in the month of July and August as Brazil faced the threat of frost, which prompted exporters to release their stocks,” UCDA said.

It also said the modest increase in Arabica coffee exports with a correspondingly high increase in value compared to the same month last year was on account of higher global coffee prices as mentioned above.

Lower Arabica proportion in the export mix is a result of the off year biennial cycle.

According to the UCDA report, coffee exports for the 12 months (September 2020-August 2021) amounted to 6,414,696 60-kilo bags worth $ 607.81 million compared to 5,216,608-kilo bags valued at US$ 502.24 million the previous year (September 2019-August 2020).

This represents 22.97% and 21.02% increase in both quantity and value, respectively.