RWANDA
Rwanda appears on track achieving its 2018 coffee production and earnings targets after the government reported progress on the crop’s performance for the first nine months of 2017.
The National Agricultural Export Board (NAEB) says in its nine-month cumulative report through September 2017 that the country earned an average of $40.7 million for the period, up from the $36.1 million Rwanda earned during the same period in 2016.
NAEB attributes the increased earnings to a slightly larger quantity of 12.3 million kilos sold in 2017, compared to the 12 million kilos the year before.
The price the Rwandese coffee attracted for the January to September period was also good, marked at $3.30/kg and up from $3.05/kg earned for the first nine months of 2016.
Rwanda earned $24.8 million during the first quarter of the 2017/2018 crop season, which started in July 2017. That is an increase over the $20.7 million the country earned in the same quarter of 2016-17. This surpassed an earlier projection by the board of $22.28 million.NAEB attributes the increased earnings for the quarter to higher volumes sold at 6.4 million kilos (m.kg) up 5.9 m.kg for the similar quarter in 2016-17.
However, the board says the $9.7 million in revenues earned for September 2017 alone showed a slight drop from the $10 million earned in September 2016.
This is possibly due to the decline in the volumes sold in the month. The 2.4 m.kg sold in 2017 fell behind the 2.7 m.kg sold during the corresponding month of 2016.
- By Shem Oirere