Foreign coffee buyers push Kenyan prices 3-year high

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Coffee roasters and buyers flocking to Kenya in their annual pilgrimage for the pick of the crop have driven average prices for the beans to the highest level in three years.

The cost of a 50-kilogram bag of AA grade coffee fetched $679 at an auction on Feb 13, the most since $751 at a sale last year, according to data supplied by the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.

The average price has risen 50 % since the season began on Oct. 10 to $280 per bag – the highest since February 2015.

“This is the time we have the best quality of the beans in the market,” Nairobi Coffee Exchange Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mbithi told Bloomberg in an interview.

Kenya’s coffee export volumes declined from 10, 803,598 kg in 2016 to 10,361,488 in 2017 on the back of unfavourable weather conditions during harvesting period.