Kampala, Uganda, Jan. 9 - Ugandan coffee exporters are still holding on to their coffee exports in various ware houses across the country due to the post-election violence in Kenya, the major export route for the commodity, trade officials told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.
An official with Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd., Uganda's leading coffee exporter, said the company is still holding on to its coffee stocks waiting for the situation to calm down in Kenya before resuming exports. Other leading coffee exporters have also suspended exports due to the violence.
"We are still keeping our coffee in warehouses until things normalize in Kenya," the official said in a telephone interview adding that the company hasn't exported any coffee via Kenya since Dec. 30.
Uganda, Africa's leading robusta coffee producer, exports over 75% of its coffee through the Kenyan port of Mombasa. However, following the announcement of Mwai Kibaki, as the winner of Kenya's Dec. 27 presidential polls, violent protests have swept across the country and looters stage roadblocks where they hijack transit vehicles on major highways.
However, Ugandan coffee exports to markets like Sudan are going on smoothly, the official added, Uganda exports around 20% of its coffee beans to Sudan.
When contacted, David Kiwanuka, the spokesperson for the state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority said that executives at the coffee body are expected to meet Wednesday to discuss the situation in Kenya in a bid to find suitable solutions. He, however, declined to reveal to amount of coffee exports that have been held as a result of the violence.
Uganda's main coffee harvest in the central and eastern regions is currently in its peak levels following the subsiding of the torrential rains which disrupted the harvest in November. The region produces 55% of the country's annual coffee output.
Uganda's 2007-08 coffee output (October-September) is expected to hit 2.8 million 60-kilogram bags compared with 2.7 million bags the previous season due to favorable weather. Robusta accounts for up to 80% of the country's annual coffee output.