(Bloomberg) -- A Ugandan farmers group urged the government to create legislation to protect the quality of the nation's coffee, its biggest export earner, and boost growers' incomes.
Such a law should stipulate crop management methods and punishment for those who mismanage their output and contribute to an overall decline in quality, Gerald Ssendaula, chairman of the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises, which represents at least 1 million coffee farmers, told delegates at a Nov. 4 conference in the capital, Kampala.
Uganda, which is Africa's biggest exporter of coffee, can see its output damaged by the picking of immature beans and improper drying methods, according to Ssendaula, a former finance minister. “There is no law to protect the crop,” he said.
A draft law that Nucafe, as the union is also known, presented to government is being considered, Christopher Kibazanga, minister of state for agriculture, said at the same event. The demand comes after Ugandan coffee-export earnings in the 12 months that ended September slumped to $327 million from $411 million a year earlier amid low export volumes and weak global prices, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Uganda coffee shipments in 2015-16 fell to 3.32 million bags, from 3.46 million, extending declines for a third year, it said. The continent's second-biggest producer after Ethiopia plans to plant 900 million coffee seedlings in the three years through June 2019 to boost output to 20 million bags in four years, according to the authority.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
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