KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda said it coffee shipments in March could drop to about 260,000 60-Kg bags compared with 348,423 bags exported in the same month last year, depressed by low international prices. Coffee is a major source of foreign exchange for the east African nation, which is Africa's number one exporter of coffee and predominantly cultivates the robusta variety. "The prevailing low international prices have led exporters to hold on their coffee stocks... as they await for coffee prices to improve," said state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) in its monthly report. UCDA said shipments of the beans in February reached 290,475 bags, an 18 percent decline from volumes shipped in the same period last year, after harsh weather depressed yields. "The Month of February was much hotter and drier than January and the harshness was manifested in the scorched coffee plants," the report said. Dry weather has already forced Uganda to lower its coffee export forecast for the 2014/2015 (Oct-Sept) season by 8.6 percent. Uganda now expects to ship 3.2 million bags of coffee, down from an earlier projection of 3.5 million bags. Uganda exported about 3.5 million bags of coffee last year.