Uganda expects its cocoa exports in the 2010/2011 (October-September) season to rise 6.6 percent compared with the last season, as newly planted trees start producing beans, a senior government official told Reuters on Thursday. Cocoa is one of its major commodity exports and a significant source of foreign exchange, although it does not produce enough to relieve a rallying world market hit by disruption in top producer Ivory Coast.
Joseph Kimera, head of the state-run Cocoa Development Project (CDP) forecast Uganda would export about 16,000 tonnes this season from the previous season's 15,000 tonnes. Earnings from the crop last season were not immediately available but the 2008/09 year brought in $35 million from 15,000 tonnes.
"Higher production and exports is mainly a function of an increase in planted area and more people in Uganda have been planting cocoa trees and most of them are reaching maturation, so we anticipate this to positively impact this season's exports," he said. Last season's exports fell short of its forecast of 18,000 mainly on account of irregular weather patterns that disrupted pod development and harvesting, Kimera said.
"Rains didn't come when they were expected and sunshine was so extreme in some areas at a time when rains were needed. This led to pods falling off trees while others became small," he said. Cocoa production has fluctuated in Uganda since it was introduced nearly 100 years ago but the government has increased support for farmers through the supply of seedlings, and by training them to take care of their crops.
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