Nairobi auction reopens on Tuesday as firms release 23,056 bags of coffee

Coffee berries. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

Trading activities at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) will resume on Tuesday with the licensed brokerage firms presenting 23,056 bags of the commodity.

Trading closed on December 19, with the NCE catalog published online and dispatched to the stakeholders outlining that 23,167 bags are ready for online trading.

Last year, NCE Chief Executive Officer Lisper Ndung’u noted that coffee earned farmers in estates and co-operatives Sh823.4 million.

In the catalog, New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (NKPCU) and Alliance Berries Limited will be opening the year on a high note through the delivery of 5,305 bags, and 4,405 bags respectively.

Kirinyaga Slopes comes third with 2,849 bags, followed by Kipkelion with 1,352 bags, Kinya (1,523 bags), Mt Elgon (1,106 bags) and Kenya Co-operative Coffee Exporters (665 bags).

Kenya Coffee Producers Association Chairman Peter Gikonyo said they have visited small-scale farmers in the counties and urged them to increase coffee production.

Mr Gikonyo visited Kandara, Murang’a county, where he called on the farmers to only market their coffee through the licensed firms.

He noted that coffee has been collected from 963 cooperative societies and estates.  

“Farmers should not do business with firms the Capital Market Authority does not recognize, ” said Gikonyo, a former chairman at NCE.

Coffee trading expert Henry Kinyua expressed optimism that there will be activities at the NCE owing to increased production of the commodity following the October and November rains.

“In the last 10 sales that were guided by Coffee Regulation 2019, the estates and cooperatives, NCE sold 112,234 bags of the commodity,” he said.

Kinyua, a former chairman at NKPCU, predicted higher volumes of good quality coffee coming into the market in the next sales 11 to 20. 

In Murang'a and Nyeri counties, the  cooperatives that will participate in the auction are Wanjengi, Gathinja, Kahuhia, New Murarandia, Gatunyu Kigio, Kangocho, Karindundu

There are 14 licensed coffee brokerage firms, but only 75 per cent participate in the NCE trading weekly.