Coffee earned Kenya Sh14.3 billion in the seven months to July 2017 compared with Sh12.2 billion realised in corresponding time last year, representing a 17 per cent growth.
The average price was impressive with a 50-kilogramme bag of the produce trading at Sh24,308 compared to Sh19,467 last year.
About 85 per cent of the Kenyan coffee is sold through the Nairobi Coffee Exchange with the remaining sold directly to buyers abroad.
Coffee earnings in the seven months to July 2017 increased by Sh2 billion due to high demand from buyers amid a shortage of the crop at the auction during the main harvest season.
Data from Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) shows the cash crop earned Kenya Sh14.3 billion in the period under review compared with Sh12.2 billion realised in corresponding time last year, representing a 17 per cent growth.
The volume of coffee offered for sale at the auction in the seven months was 29.3 million kilogrammes compared to 31.3 million kilogrammes that were supplied at the same time last year.
“Better prices were realised this year resulting from high competition as traders competed for the little volumes of coffee available at the auction,” said NCE chief executive Daniel Mbithi.
The decline in production, he said, was due to lower crop yield due to adverse weather conditions, mainly in the main growing regions of Mount Kenya.
Mr Mbithi said the average price was impressive with a 50-kilogramme bag of the produce trading at Sh24,308 compared to Sh19,467 last year.
Volumes are yet to pick up at the auction, forcing the NCE to suspend trading last week. This is less than a fortnight since it resumed from a one month break, citing a shortage of the commodity to trade.
Mr Mbithi said the auction was postponed because they did not receive enough coffee to sustain the trading — pointing out that operations will resume this week.
According to the NCE, there was a significant reduction of coffee from farmers, from the eastern part of the country that is currently supposed to be supplying the auction with quality beans.
The auction took a break on May 23 as the main crop from central Kenya came to an end, which saw a sharp decline in the quality of coffee at the auction.
About 85 per cent of the Kenyan coffee is sold through the auction with the remaining sold directly to buyers abroad.
The government has been pushing for direct sales to enable growers to earn higher income from their crop by eliminating the middlemen who exploit farmers when their crop goes through the auction.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
