On average, a 50-kilogramme bag fetched Sh17,000 down from Sh18,600 it attracted in last week’s auction. The prices dropped as supply increased to 637,000kg from last week’s 580,000kg.
The value of Kenyan coffee dropped eight per cent in this week’s auction, reversing a trend of good prices witnessed since the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) returned from recess mid this month.
On average, a 50-kilogramme bag fetched Sh17,000 down from Sh18,600 it attracted in last week’s auction. The prices dropped as supply increased to 637,000kg from last week’s 580,000kg.
Kenya’s premium coffee, grade AA registered a minimum drop in price during the auction, selling at Sh22,800 a 50-kilogramme bag compared to last week’s Sh23,460.
The second best grade-AB price also lost marginally to trade at Sh20,000 compared to Sh20,500 in the previous auction. The good prices realised in the last three weeks were due to high quality crop coming in from farmers harvesting new beans.
The NCE closed last month after the main crop season came to an end resulting in low quality berries that could not fetch good money.
Kenya coffee is in high demand, mainly in the UK and the US, with traders buying it for blending with lower quality beans from different parts of the world.
Coffee production has dropped from 130,000 tonnes in the late 1980s to the current average of 50,000 tonnes due to change in land use and mismanagement of farmers’ co-operative societies during the Kanu era.
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