Uganda Coffee Development Authority - Uganda Multimedia News & Information

Coffee growing, production and processing to be revamped

Gerald Businge — Tue, 19 May 2015 13:58:50 +0000

The parliamentary coffee platform have embarked on the bid to revamp coffee growing, production and processing of the once Uganda’s top-earning export crop to also improve people’s livelihood. Uganda Coffee Development Authority wants the fast tracking of the Coffee Bill 2015 to regulate coffee growing, production, and marketing.

In a bid to revamp coffee growing in the region, the Uganda parliamentary platform have embarked on programmes to bring all stakeholders involved in the coffee process to revamp and raise the standards which have declined in the recent years. According to the chairperson of the committee and MP Kakuuto county Mathias Nsubuga, Uganda has slowed down in coffee growing compared to the past when the population was small. But recently government has set a goal in a replanting programme to plant 100 million seedlings per year in three years and this is a ray of hope for coffee farmers.

Members of the forum say they now want to especially bring on board the youth who are still energetic and productive to keep them busy and deal with unemployment. However, this has to be done with the help of Uganda Coffee Development Authority that needs to provide them with inputs like seedlings, taplins and fertilizers; plus small scale machines to improve on the coffee.

The Managing Director Uganda Coffee Development Authority has asked Members of Parliament on the platform to help in the fast tracking and enactment of the Coffee Bill 2015 that is apparently before the parliamentary committee on agriculture. Sheema woman MP and the publicity secretary of the platform Rosemary Nyakikongoro gave an assurance that the bill will be passed before the end of business for the ninth parliament.

However, according to UCDA, farmers are still faced with challenges like pests, climate changes, lack of appropriate technology to irrigate and process the coffee to harvest better.

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Uganda Coffee Development Authority hopeful country will meet export target

Gerald Businge — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:47:12 +0000

The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has expressed hope that the current good coffee prices will help the country achieve its coffee production targets and generate more income for Uganda coffee farmers.

Coffee garden

The UCDA said in a report that Uganda is expected to export 3.1 million bags in the 2010/2011 season from 2.67 million 60 kilogram bags in 2009/2010.

UCDA says most coffee farmers are currently selling their coffee at a price 2000 shillings per kilogram of dry, unprocessed Robusta beans from 1700 shillings in October 2010.

The coffee development authority says the rising prices might help encourage more farmers to resume coffee farming and harvest, and overturn the recent reduction in Robusta coffee exports resulting from unfavourable weather conditions and outbreaks of pests.

UCDA says this coupled with the government’s coffee production campaign targeting improving coffee farmers’ access cheap credit and agricultural inputs as well as funding research into high-yielding hybrid coffee plants will see the country meet and probably surpass its coffee export targets.

Uganda has set a target of producing 4.5 million 60-Kg bags of exported coffee by 2015 as part of its campaign to ensure the country benefits more from its leading agricultural foreign exchange earner- coffee.

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Uganda coffee exports and production affected by weather

Gerald Businge — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:36:47 +0000

The Uganda Coffee Development Authority has said bad weather experienced last year continues to affect the country’s coffee output and coffee exports.

UCDA which had earlier forecast the 2009/10 exports to come in at 3.05 million bags has put that figure down, now saying Uganda will produce about 2.8 million bags of coffee .

Coffee garden

Announcing their monthly coffee indicators, UCDA said due to the drought exports decreased by 19.6 percent to 177,300 60-kg bags in May compared with the May 2009. UCDA had forecast to export 220,000 bags of coffee.

Although good rains came later in 2009, the coffee authority said they came late to assist in coffee production and instead stopped proper ripening of coffee seeds, especially in western Uganda, the largest coffee producing region of Uganda.

Uganda which mainly grows robusta coffee is among the top producers of coffee in the world.

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