Uganda delays coffee-production goal

KAMPALA, Uganda — Africa’s top coffee exporter pushed back a target of increasing annual output fivefold this decade because it has taken longer than thought to introduce programs needed to raise production.

Uganda now expects to reach a target of 20 million 132-pound bags a year by 2030 instead of 2020, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Programs related to better plantings and irrigation as well as the application of fertilizers started later than expected, it said. Annual output currently totals about 4 million bags.

“We discovered that 2020 is too close, but the dream is on to ultimately achieve 20 million bags,” Christopher Kibazanga, minister of state for agriculture, said Tuesday in an interview in the capital, Kampala.

The nation plans to double production to 8 million bags by 2020, Emmanuel Iyamulemye, managing director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, said in a separate interview.