The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s trade with the East African Community continues to grow in its favor, registering a trade surplus in January 2024, but is yet to reach the levels recorded in the same month a year ago.
According to the latest national statistics, merchandise trade registered a surplus of 80.6 million dollars in January 2024, which was higher than the December surplus of 22.3 million.
However, this is still far below the 180 million surpluses recorded in January 2023. This surplus mainly came from higher exports than imports traded with the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi, with only Tanzania recording a surplus against Uganda. Against the Middle East, the country made a surplus of 71.5 million, a drop from 99.7 million the previous month, while export values to the European Union exceeded imports from there by 44.93 million dollars.
Trade, especially to the EU was largely boosted by coffee which amounted to 85.57 million dollars in January 2024, a 30 percent increase in value from 65.94 million registered in December 2023, according to the February Economic Performance Report by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
However, despite an improvement, there was a trade deficit between Uganda and the rest of the world which narrowed by 30 percent to 188.14 million dollars between December to January this year, due to a decline in imports which more than offset the decline in export receipts.
Overall Uganda exported merchandise worth 565.40 million dollars in January, which is lower by 8.3 percent than in the previous month. The ministry attributed this mainly to lower export earnings from gold, beans, oil re-exports, and tobacco during the month.
The value of merchandise imports decreased by 15 percent from December 2023 to 753.5 million dollars in January in January 2024, mainly because of lower private sector imports, particularly mineral products (excluding petroleum products), textile and its products, machinery equipment, vehicles and their accessories, among others.
In comparison to the same month the previous year, monthly merchandise exports grew by more than a third to 565.4 million dollars in January this year, due to better export earnings from gold, coffee, and oil re-exports among others. The increase in coffee export earnings was attributed to a rise in the average price from 2.74 dollars a kilo in December to 2.96 dollars in January 2024.
But there was also an increase of 20 percent in the volumes exported, to 480,000 bags. When compared with the same month the previous year, earnings from coffee exports grew by 27 from January 2023 to 85.57 million dollars in January 2024, mainly due to better prices on the global market, driven by continued concerns over supply, especially in Indonesia and Vietnam.
The US Department of Agriculture in Indonesia says that excessive rainfall has disrupted the cherry development stage and lowered yields in major Robusta-producing areas. In Vietnam, factors such as decreased land, rising labor and fertilizer expenses, and farmers switching to alternative crops have caused a drop in production.
The EAC remained the top destination of Uganda’s exports, accounting for 38.2 percent of the total exports, with Kenya being the largest market with a share of 30.4 of the total exports to the region.
The Middle East and the EU emerged as the second and third top destinations for Uganda’s exports, accounting for 26.4 and 17.5 percent respectively. The United Arab Emirates accounted for 97 percent of the Middle East’s market share of Uganda’s exports.
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