Coffee auction aborts on account of heavy central Kenya rainfall

Coffee auction at the Nairobi exchange failed to take place this week owing to low supply of the commodity in the market occasioned by the ongoing downpour.

The Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) is supposed to be receiving the main season crop from central Kenya but this has been hampered by the rains that have interfered with the drying of the produce.

As a result, the amount of coffee supplied in the market is not enough to support an auction, hence the need to accumulate volumes.

“We did not have the auction this week as there were low volumes for trading,” said NCE Chief Executive Daniel Mbithi.

Low volume at the auction and unmet demand have pushed up the price of the commodity with a 50-kilo bag increasing by 30 percent in the previous sale.

A market report by NCE indicated that a 50-kilo bag of coffee on average fetched Sh19,004 last week up from Sh12,938 recorded in the previous sale.

The price was the highest recorded since the new crop year started in October, partly coming as good news to farmers who had been grappling with low prices in the previous months.

The NCE has indicated that the good prices witnessed would hold for some time as the main season coffee from central Kenya is expected at the auction in January.

This comes at a time when the price of the commodity in the world market has rallied, having a positive impact on the value of the local crop.

International prices have continued to register impressive performance in the recent sales with the value so far rising to over US110 cents a pound from a previous low of 95.

Kenya sells more than 95 percent of its coffee in the international market, which determines the value of the crop locally.