Uganda expects 2016/2017 coffee export crop to increase 13.5 pct

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda expects its coffee exports in the 2016/2017 season to increase by 13.5 percent helped by favourable weather in a major growing area, an industry body official said on Friday. Shipments over the next crop year which begins in October will likely rise to 4.2 million 60-kilogram bags from 2015/16's revised forecast of 3.7 million, David Muwonge, head of marketing at the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farmer Enterprises (NUCAFE), told Reuters. "If we have good rains now, and not a prolonged January-March drought, then the southwestern crop should be good," he said. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Aaron Maasho and Jason Neely)