Farmers sorting out coffee berries.[photo/standardmedia.co.ke]
Quality coffee from Mt Kenya is expected to trigger prices upward at Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) in early 2018, says Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE). The clean coffee beans from the region have started trickling in small quantities at the auction though prices are yet to pick.
Farmers are harvesting and at the same time drying, though the process is slow due to ongoing short rains. Last week market report from NCE indicate a 50 kilogram bag of coffee traded at Sh19, 467 on average down from Sh19,897 that was recorded on November 14. NCE chief executive Daniel Mbithi said clean coffee from the Mt Kenya region, owing to their high quality, will drive the price upwards.
“Quality coffee from Central Kenya has started trickling in small lots though most of is expected in the New Year,” said Mbithi. In October Mbithi stated coffee prices performed more or less the same with last year’s similar period.
NCE says even with the decline, the prices are still good given that there have not been large quantities of good coffee at the auction since the start of 2017/18 coffee season on October 1, 2017. The auction is now banking on the main crop from central Kenya to boost prices that have been low for the better part of the year. “We expect the prices to improve significantly once we start getting more of the quality coffee from central Kenya,” said Mbithi.
Clean coffee sold through NCE and directs sales increased to Sh20.3 billion in the 2016/17 production year. Mbithi recently, in an annual report stated that coffee earnings between October last year and September this year reached Sh15.9 billion compared to Sh14.8 billion in 2015/16 year accounting a 6.91 percent increase.