Global coffee exports drop 9.6 percent in March 2023

KAMPALA-Global green bean exports in March 2023 totalled 10.90 million bags, as compared with 12.06mln bags in the same month of the previous year, the International Coffee Organisation [ICO] says in its Coffee Market Report for April 2023.

However, the report says global cumulative total for 2022/23 to March dropped by 6.1 percent to 56.26mln bags of coffee, as compared with 59.92mln bags over the same period a year ago.

According to the report, exports of all forms of coffee from Africa decreased by 5 percent to 1.12mln bags in March 2023 from 1.18mln bags in March 2022.

For the first six months of the current coffee year 2022/2203, Africa’s coffee exports rose by 0.3 percent to 6.35mln bags as compared with 6.33mln bags in coffee year 2021/22, says the report.

The report says Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya are the main drivers behind the fall in Africa’s coffee exports, with shipments of coffee decreasing by 41.4 percent to 0.12mln bags as compared with 0.21mln bags in March 2022, and by 17.7 percent to 58,340 bags from 70,849 bags in March 2022, respectively.

“However, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda served as counterweights that tempered the severity of the region’s downturn, with their exports up 86.7 percent, 249.2 percent, and 2.0 percent, respectively,” notes the report.

Uganda reported it exported 487,797 bags of coffee in March 2023 earning US$ 71.54mln. “This was an increase of 2.05 percent in quantity but a decrease of 11.72 percent in value compared to the same month last year,” reported the Uganda Coffee Development Authority [UCDA], a government agency that supervises the coffee sub-sector in the country.

According to UCDA, the increase in the country’s coffee exports in March 2023 was mainly driven by exporters who off-loaded stocks from their warehouses as the global Robusta market started correcting upwards on account of reduced global supplies from major origins, Vietnam and Brazil, the world’s coffee producer.

The ICO says green bean exports of the Brazilian Naturals fell in March 2023, falling by 13.5 percent to 3.08mn bags while in the same period, South America’s coffee exports decreased by 17.3 percent to 4.13 million bags, driven by the three main origins of the region, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, which saw their combined exports fall by 17.9 percent.

“Exports of all forms of coffee from Asia & Oceania increased by 0.2 percent to 5.03mln bags in March 2023 and were up 2.5 percent to 24.05mln bags in the first six months of coffee year 2022/23. Indonesia is the main driver of the latest upturn, with exports increasing by 16 percent to 0.58mln bags from 0.5mln bags in March 2022, outweighing the 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent downturns of India and Vietnam, respectively,” adds ICO.

In March 2023, exports of all forms of coffee from Mexico & Central America were down 15.4 percent to 1.75mlnn bags as compared with 2.07mln in March 2022.

https://thecooperator.news/africa-posts-2-2-percent-growth-in-coffee-exports/

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