Ugandan coffee earnings have increased in the last five years but output is steadily declining, agriculture state minister Kibirige Ssebunya has said.
Ssebunya said Uganda earned $96m in 2002, and $189m in 2006. "I am wondering why people are pulling out of coffee production when it is paying more," Ssebunya asked at a coffee stakeholders' meeting. "I was surprised to learn that coffee exporters have dropped from 150 companies to only 15," the minister added.
Coffee exporters blamed the drop to lack of government's support to researchers and the fluctuating world prices. They said the government should support research on coffee wilt resistant trees because the disease is wiping out the crop, leading to low output.
Researchers at Kituuza in Mukono are believed to have developed 25 lines of coffee species that are resistant to coffee wilt.
Coffee is Uganda's traditional foreign exchange earner. But revenues from fish, tourism, flowers and remittances from Ugandans abroad are surpassing it.
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