Coffee prices opened the year lower than the last trading session of last year, data from Nairobi Coffee Exchange shows.
The prices have not come as a surprise to the exchange as the chief executive Daniel Mbithi had predicted higher earnings may not pick up in the first trading session last Tuesday.
“I expect higher exports but lower international coffee prices may start the year,” he said in an interview on January 5.
Only Elephant Bean, graded E, improved in prices to fetch an average $268.40 (Sh27,376) for a 50-kilogramme bag, up from $261 (Sh26,622) in the last auction on December 15.
Elephant bean offered 49 bags during the weekly auction as compared to 16 bags during the last sale in December.
The best quality AA grade coffee was down Sh3,120 to sell at Sh26,826 ($263) for a 50-kilo bag from Sh29,946 ($293) in the previous sale.
Some 5,917 bags of the crop were bought at the Tuesday sale. The grade hit Sh40,800 in maximum price offered, down from the maximum Sh45,490 in December.
Coffee grade AB fetched an average Sh23,680 ($232.16) down from Sh25,500 ($250) per bag, selling 8,542 bags of the commodity. A bag attracted a maximum price of Sh34,500.
Peaberry (PB) grade, lost Sh2,718 to sell at Sh22,935 ($224) average price for a 50-kilo bag, from Sh25,653 ($251) in December. It hit a maximum price of Sh35,394, selling a thousand bags.
Auction resumes tomorrow at the Wakulima House-based exchange in Nairobi. The exchange expects more volumes of the crop, as a result of the continued heavy rains in central Kenya region.
“We have received high quality beans from Mt Kenya region and central Kenya, and expect that prices will be higher,” he said in an interview at the start of the new year.
The high prices have been occasioned by high quality coffee from Central Kenya, which has presented high volumes of harvest since the on-set of the El Nino rains.
Mbithi said this is the crop being received from harvest of the main crop since December 2015.
The quantity of coffee auctioned at the NCE declined from 1,768 metric tonnes in October to 1,268 metric tonnes in November, according to government data, while prices rose from Sh319 for a kilo of the beverage, to Sh337 per kilo.
Source: the-star.co.ke/news/2016/01/18/coffee-brews-lower-earnings-in-the-first-session-of-the-year_c1277717
