Revolution in coffee industry as auction goes digital

A coffee farmer from Othaya in Nyeri, inspects whether her coffee flowering is infected by a coffee blight disease. The disease is common during the heavy rainy season. [Kibata Kihu/Standard]

Coffee farmers might soon start reaping the fruit of their labour, with the produce’s trade going online.

In what could mark a turnaround in the ailing sector, trading at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) has been opened to farmers at the grassroots, who will now be able to monitor performance of their produce in real time.