A 50-kilo bag sold at Sh25,755 Tuesday down from Sh28,684 during the previous sale.
Coffee prices at the weekly Nairobi auction have dropped 13 per cent due to low quality of the commodity at the auction.
A market report from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicates a 50-kilogramme bag of coffee was sold at Sh25,755 on Tuesday down from Sh28,684 in the previous sale held last week.
The current price is the lowest to be achieved this year, marking the third time in a row that the value of Kenyan coffee has been dipping at the auction.
The prices have been on an upward trajectory since the first sale of 2017 to last month following an increase in high quality beans from farmers.
“The quality of coffee that we are now getting at the auction has gone down and this is what has affected the price,” said Daniel Mbithi, chief executive officer NCE.
The coffee that is trading at the auction currently is coming in from the main crop season in central Kenya. The harvesting season starts in October with supplies running all the way to March.
Last year the crop was hit by drought that affected most parts of the country leading to postponement of auctions at some point.
Kenya’s earnings from coffee dropped by Sh994 million in five months to February on account of low prices at the international market. Market data from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicate the value of coffee dropped from Sh9 billion last year in February to Sh8 billion in the period under review, representing a 10 per cent decline.
Kenya’s coffee is majorly traded at the New York Coffee Exchange and any change in price affects the local sales.
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