Kampala — Uganda, Africa’s top coffee exporter, pushed back a target of boosting annual output fivefold by a decade because it has taken longer than expected to introduce programmes needed to raise production. The country now expects to reach a target of 20-million 60kg bags a year by 2030 instead of 2020, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Programmes related to better plantings and irrigation, as well as the application of fertilisers, 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 on 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. The continent’s second-largest grower wants to increase production to...
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