Market News

Low quality coffee drives down prices in final sale

coffee

Demand for coffee fell because of the low quality. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The price of coffee remained depressed in the last sale of the main crop season with low quality characterising most of the produce offered for sale.

A market report by the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicates a 50-kilogramme bag of coffee on average fetched Sh9,200, down from Sh9,300 recorded last week.

The volumes offered for sale this week were of lower quality compared with the previous trading.

The NCE said demand for coffee was down because of the low quality with most of the beverage failing to attract any bids.

“Average prices from sale 34 have mainly been affected by low quality coffee coming to the auction as we near the close of the main crop season,” said NCE.

The auction is breaking for a one-month recess as the main crop from central Kenya comes to an end. It will resume in July to trade the short season crop mainly from western part of the country. Low quality coupled with depressed international prices of the commodity in the world market has pushed down the value of coffee at the auction in the last four months.