Kampala, October 10, 2008 - Uganda's 2007/08 coffee earnings shot up 52 percent to $388.4 million on high global prices and robusta volumes from $256 million in the previous period, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority said on Friday.
Uganda has become a key player in the production of robusta coffee after a political crisis in former leading African producer Ivory Coast slashed production.
"The improvement in value from $256 million in 2006/07 to $388.4 million was, on the whole, in tandem with a general improvement in coffee prices on the world market," it said.
Coffee volumes jumped 18.8 percent to 3.2 million 60-bags in the (Oct-Sept) crop year from 2.7 million bags in 2006/07, the authority said.
"The overall increase in performance was more to Robusta, which went up ... in volume on the account of improved husbandry practices in response to the good international prices," the UCDA said in a report.
"The favourable weather, more of the planted coffee coming into production and the ongoing coffee production campaign further underpinned production," it added.
Robusta volumes rose to 2.7 million bags from 2.1 million in the previous year, the body said.
Europe is the main destination for the east African nation's beans.
Uganda is Africa's second biggest coffee grower after Ethiopia, which largely produces arabica.
Uganda's coffee export earnings for September shot up 46 percent to $26.8 million from $18.3 million in the same period last year.
A total of 180,160 bags of robusta beans worth $22.3 million were sold while the corresponding figures for arabica were 32,686 bags and $4.5 million, the state-owned coffee body said.
"(European Union) countries took the highest volume of 156,630 bags although lower than that of the previous month."
An increase in rainfall in Uganda is likely to negatively affect coffee production in October, the body said, adding that it expected to do 170,000 bags.
Uganda has two main harvest periods; from September-October and April-May although some bean types are picked year-round.
About 1.2 million households gain their livelihood from coffee, which is grown in some 60 percent of Uganda's districts.