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.