A market report from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicates the commodity fetched Sh34,000 for a 50-kilogramme bag in the latest sale held this week.
The lower value was attributed to low quality coffee as the current season draws to a close, leading to a decrease in demand from buyers.
The crop coming to the auction at the moment is being supplied from Eastern and parts of western Kenya.
Coffee prices declined marginally at the weekly auction due to lower quality beans as the current crop season comes to an end.
A market report from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicates the commodity fetched Sh34,000 for a 50-kilogramme bag in the latest sale held this week, down from Sh37,000 in the previous auction for the same quantity.
The lower value was attributed to low quality coffee as the current season draws to a close, leading to a decrease in demand from buyers.
“The current crop is coming to an end and what we are now getting at the auction are the last batches of this season that are not of high quality,” said NCE chief executive Daniel Mbithi.
Mr Mbithi said the value of the crop at the auction is expected to pick up in the coming days as they expect to receive the main season coffee, mainly from central Kenya.
The auction, said Mr Mbithi, has already started getting the produce from the main season but in small batches.
The auction has been running intermittently since the beginning of the new crop year in October because of a shortage of beans in the market occasioned by reduced supplies from the farmers.
In the first half of this year, coffee exports earned the country Sh16.4 billion ($149 million), an 18 percent increase from the Sh13.8 billion ($126 million) the cash crop fetched in the first half of 2020.
The crop coming to the auction at the moment is being supplied from Eastern and parts of western Kenya and it is supposed to run the auction all the way to the end of November when the main season’s produce is expected to get to the market in low volumes with huge volumes expected in December.
