- Coffee worth Ksh755 million changed hands in Sale 41 at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange
- Price differences widened sharply across grades and individual lots
- Certified coffee continued to attract higher average prices than uncertified lots
The Nairobi Coffee Exchange sold 990,385 kilograms of coffee in Sale 41, fetching Ksh755 million at an average of Ksh38,118 per 50kg bag.
The auction, covering 16,039 bags across 1,017 lots, was valued at approximately USD5.83 million at the prevailing Central Bank exchange rate of Ksh129.45 to the dollar.
Prices varied sharply depending on grade and lot quality. The highest price recorded was USD378 per 50kg bag, while the lowest fell to USD78, a more than fourfold gap between the top and bottom of the market.
Eight grades traded in the sale. AA fetched the best price of any grade, averaging USD343.05 per bag across 2,079 bags, followed by PB at USD325.02 for 741 bags. AB was the largest grade by volume at 6,436 bags and averaged USD332.10, while C was the next largest by volume at 2,842 bags, averaging USD292.75. TT averaged USD271.85 across 321 bags, and UG1 averaged USD256.64 across 505 bags. At the bottom of the table, T averaged USD191.58 for 705 bags, and UG2 recorded the lowest average of any grade at USD158.23 across 389 bags.
At the farm level, the sale translated to roughly Ksh762 per kilogram of clean coffee. After accounting for a milling outturn ratio of 6.5, that works out to about Ksh117 per kilogram of cherry paid to farmers before other deductions.
New Kenya Planters Co-operative Union (New KPCU) topped the marketing agents’ table, handling 3,359 bags (207 tonnes), a 21 percent market share, at an average of USD284 per bag.
READ ALSO:
Alliance Berries Limited followed with 2,459 bags (152 tonnes) at USD291, and Kipkelion Broker Company Ltd placed third with 1,869 bags (115 tonnes), commanding the highest average price among the top brokers.
Rounding out the list were Coffee Estate Bourgeoisie Brokers with 90 tonnes at USD291, Meru County Coffee Marketing Agency with 71 tonnes at USD279, Kirinyaga Slopes Coffee Brokerage with 64 tonnes at USD284, United Eastern Kenya Coffee Marketing with 55 tonnes at USD309, and Caffora Coffee Company with 40 tonnes at USD331. The last two both sold above the sale’s overall average price.
Demand stayed concentrated among a handful of dealers, with the top five buyers together accounting for 77 percent of the coffee sold. C. Dorman SEZ Ltd led the field with 24 percent, followed by Ibero Kenya Ltd at 19 percent and Louis Dreyfus Company at 18 percent, together commanding 61 percent of the sale between them.
Certified lots made up 17 percent of lots sold and 19 percent of total volume, and fetched a premium, averaging USD315 per bag against USD290 for uncertified coffee, a gap of roughly 9 percent. Part of that difference may reflect the grade mix rather than certification alone.
Only 12 of the 1,017 lots, about 1 percent, had confirmed final results at the time of reporting, with the rest still listed as provisional.
By Benedict Aoya
Get more stories from our website: Sacco Review.
For comments and clarifications, write to: Saccoreview@
Kindly follow us via our social media pages on Facebook: Sacco Review Newspaper for timely updates
Stay ahead of the pack! Grab the latest Sacco Review newspaper!
