Africa’s coffee exports drop 9 percent in December 2022

KAMPALA -Exports of all forms of coffee from Africa decreased by 9 percent to 0.97 million bags in December 2022 from 1.13mln bags in December 2021, according to International Coffee Organisation [ICO].

For the first three months of the current coffee year, exports totalled 3.17mln bags as compared with 3.22mln bags in coffee year 2021/22, down 1.4 percent,” says ICO in its Coffee Market Report for January 2023.

ICO says Uganda is the main driver behind the fall in the region’s exports, with shipments of coffee from the region’s largest producer and exporter falling by 21.9 percent to 0.42mln bags as compared with 0.54mln bags in December 2021.

The report notes this is now the 12th consecutive month of decline for Uganda, with its cumulative total exports from January to December 2022 having amounted to 5.63mln bags, as compared with 6.77mln bags over the same period a year ago [January–December 2021], equating to a 20.25 percent or 1.14mln bag decrease.

Drought in most of the coffee growing regions, leading to a lower and shorter main harvest season in central and eastern parts of Uganda and hence lower output, is continuing to hamper Ugandan coffee exports.

As noted previously, Africa’s export performance is not entirely hindered by Uganda, with Côte d’Ivoire [up 69.4 percent to 0.19mln bags], Kenya [up 33.2 percent to 0.12mln bags] Tanzania [up 18.6 percent to 0.34mln bags], giving the region tremendous uplifts in the first three months of coffee year 2022/23.

Global green bean exports in December 2022 totalled 9.81mln bags, as compared with 10.64mln bags in the same month of the previous year, down 7.7 percent. The downturn was spread across all coffee groups except for the Robustas, which recorded a marginal gain of 1.1 percent.

As a result, the cumulative total exports of green beans for coffee year 2022/23 are down 1.1 percent as compared with 2.4 percent increase for the first two months of the current coffee year. The cumulative total for 2022/23 to December is 27.26mln bags as compared with 27.67mln bags over the same a year ago, down 1.5 percent.

https://thecooperator.news/africas-coffee-exports-were-6-8-percent-up-in-november-2022/

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