Laikipia and Taita Taveta counties have the highest growth in the acreage of land under coffee crop in Kenya, highlighting the new zones preferred by investors for production of the key foreign exchange earner.
Analysis of new data shows that the area under coffee in Laikipia grew by 32.8 percent in the 2023-24 crop year—the highest change across all the 33 counties where the crop is grown, followed by Taita Taveta (20 percent), Elgeyo Marakwet (17.2 percent), Siaya (16.2 percent) and Baringo (15.3 percent).
These new areas were traditionally used for producing sisal, tea, sugarcane, maize, beans, sorghum, macadamia, tomatoes, and bananas, but they are gradually adopting coffee farming.
Contrastingly, Kiambu posted the sharpest drop in the area under coffee at 3.1 percent, followed by Murang’a, which shed 1.6 percent—signifying the impact of a shift by a growing number of investors who are flattening their farms in these key producing areas to pave the way for better rewarding real estate projects and crops such as avocado.
“The period under review registered an increase in area under coffee from 111,902 hectares (ha) in 2022-23 to 113,503ha, translating to a 1.43 percent rise. The increase in area is attributed to the introduction of coffee production in non-traditional coffee growing zones,” said the Agriculture and Food Authority in a disclosure.
“Kiambu and Murang’a Counties recorded the largest decrease in areas under coffee farming at 623ha and 150ha, respectively.”
Kiambu, however, still had the largest acreage under coffee in the 2023/24 season at 19,746ha, followed by Kirinyaga at 10,412ha, Nyeri (8,856ha), Murang’a (8,385ha), Meru (8,001ha), and Bungoma (6,925ha).
The volume of coffee produced increased marginally in the 2023/24 crop season, buoyed by the new producing zones.
“The production of Clean Coffee (CC) in 2023/24 was 49,501.23 tonnes compared to 48,648.55 tonnes in 2022/23, a slight increase of 1.75 percent, supported by expanded cultivation areas and higher yields. A total of 14,626.27 tonnes of CC was produced by the estates while the co-operatives produced 34,874.96 tonnes in the period under review,” AFA said.
Kiambu retained its ranking as the highest coffee producer with 8,957.44 tonnes produced in the 2023-24 season, followed by Kirinyaga (8,931.49 tonnes) and Nyeri (6,520.12 tonnes). The total quantity of coffee sold under auction in the 2023-24 crop year rose by 27.5 percent to 41,617 tonnes, up from 32,652 tonnes sold in the previous year.
However, the quantity of coffee sold under the direct sales window decreased by 29.6 percent from 9,350 tonnes in 2022-23 to 6,583 tonnes in 2023-24.
“The total quantity of coffee sold under both auction and direct sales was 48,200 tonnes valued at $229.55 million (Sh29.64billion) in the period under review, a 14.8 percent rise from 42,001 tonnes valued at $176.43 million (Sh22.73 billion) in 2022-23,” said the regulator.
Kenya’s coffee is much sought-after by roasters and blenders, and international prices are used as a benchmark for the local price at the NCE.
However, due to sustained mismanagement of the value chain, which has, over the years, given rise to low returns, many farmers have ditched the crop over time in favour of more lucrative crops.
As a result, domestic production of coffee has dwindled from a peak of 128,637 tonnes in 1988 to just 49,501.23 tonnes in 2023-24.
The United States Department of Agriculture is predicting a 13.3 percent growth in Kenya’s coffee production to 850,000 bags in the next marketing period (2025-26) that begins in October this year, up from 750,000 bags produced in the current 2024-25 period.
The agency, through its foreign agriculture service division, says the expected rebound in the country’s coffee production is informed by the higher coffee prices, the government’s ongoing coffee reform programme, and the slowdown by farmers in converting their coffee plantations into real estate business.
