Uganda has embarked on a vigorous coffee replanting programme to cash in on rising world prices.
"Coffee prices on the world market recently hit an eight-year high at $1.65 per kilogramme; this movement is expected to be sustained," said Fred Mukasa, acting managing director of the state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA.) "UCDA in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn up an eight-year coffee production plan (2007-2015) designed to increase production from the current four million to five million bags of 60 kilogrammes each."
Trading sources said that global coffee production during 2007/2008 is estimated to range between 109 million and 112 million bags. This compares with a total world demand of around 120 million bags, leaving a deficit of about eight million bags.
A senior UCDA official, David Kiwanuka, said Uganda has embarked on a replanting programme to replace millions of coffee trees that have become too old to be productive. It also aims to replace trees destroyed by the incurable wilt disease, which has infected about 50 per cent of Uganda's coffee trees. Farmers have been advised to control its proliferation by burning affected trees. The disease has destroyed almost the entire coffee acreage in some districts.
Between 800,000 and one million households in central, southwestern and eastern Uganda depend on income from coffee sales.
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