Coffee reforms bearing fruit, Record prices as Coffee reforms gather momentum

Record prices and turnover were recorded at this week’s coffee auction, which may point to the benefits emerging from the bold reforms put in place by the government. 

A premium $533 sale for a 50kg bag and a weekly turnover valued at $8.2 million (approx Ksh 1.2Billion) were recorded, being the highest price and trade turnover, respectively, recorded since new regulatory regime kicked in.

This high price is equivalent to Ksh 246 per Kilogram of cherry at factory gate. 

Coffee from Kii Factory which is part of Rung’eto Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Kirinyaga County earned the top price. KII factory had 268 bags receiving over $500 per bag. Rung’eto Farmers’ coffee also fetched the highest price in last week’s auction. 

Of particular note is that the coffee was offered for sale be 

Kirinyaga Slopes Brokerage Company Ltd which is wholly owned by Kirinyaga farmers, and one of the newly licensed coffee traders following the coffee reforms. 

This week’s sale saw a total of 27,046, bags (50kgs) of coffee traded, signifying a 64% increase from the 16,468 bags traded in Sale Number 1 last week.

Eight brokers and agents participated, with Kirinyaga Slopes trading the highest volume of 7,809 bags of which 5,335 bags or 68% of their coffee were top grades AA and AB. 

An upward price trend is emerging in the market, with the number of bags receiving more than $400 per bag increasing to 7 per cent from the constant 2 per cent that the market used to report. Coffee sold this week was largely from Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Embu counties. 

In addition, 17,522 bags constituting 65% of the volumes traded were top grades AA and AB. 

Coffee Buyers:

A total of 23 buyers participated in the auction, led by C. Dormans, Kenyacof, Ibero Kenya, Louis Dreyfus Company, and Sasini.

By Nairobi Coffee Exchange