KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's coffee volumes will rise 11.5 percent in the 2009/10 season to 3.4 million bags versus last year on new trees coming into production and better weather, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said on Thursday.
East Africa's third largest economy has become a key player in robusta production and is Africa's second biggest coffee grower after Ethiopia, which largely produces arabica beans.
"For this coffee year 2009/10, our projection is 3.4 million bags, hoping the weather will be favourable," the body's acting managing director, Fred Mukasa, told Reuters in an interview.
"We have a lot of young crop coming into production," he said. The figure includes carry-over stocks from the last year.
Uganda exported 3.05 million bags worth $291.3 million in the October-September season last year, down 5 percent and 25 percent from 3.21 million bags and $388.3 million in 2007/08.
Coffee accounts for around 60 percent of Uganda's cash crop earnings and is a key employer in its agriculture sector, which has mainly small-scale farmers.
Mukasa said he expected volumes to hit 4.5 million bags by 2015, and the body expected to plant around 20 million additional trees annually.
The coffee body estimates that Uganda has around 230 million coffee trees. In the late 1990s, coffee wilt disease decimated Uganda's trees, destroying around 50 percent.
Source:af.reuters.com
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