Coffee producers are on course for another windfall
Coffee farmers in various parts of Kenya are still relishing the heaps of cash that typified this year’s payout. Fortunately for them, the good times are poised to persist if the trends at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange are anything to go by.
The recent coffee boom experienced in many parts of central Kenya, where the crop thrives, is still palpable in the banter of locals who are still pleasantly awed that their produce could fetch upwards of Kes100 per kilo of red cherries.
Not that the phenomenon is totally alien; they’ve seen it all before but that was about a decade ago.
Also, in recent years, farmers in the crop’s heartland regions of Mathira have seen prices in the high Kes80s and Kes90s; flirting with the handsome Kes100 a kilo.
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Naturally, the coffee producers would look to a future where their crop’s prices gravitate towards a hundred shillings. And this would not be farfetched.
The Nairobi Coffee Exchange recently resumed from a month-long break and things are looking up. The price of a 50Kg bag of green beans sold at $265 (Kes31,000) when trading opened around July, a substantial $83 jump compared to pre-recess figures.
What’s more, according to the Business Daily, the price for a 50kg bag rose by $2 to $267 (Kes31,506) between Jul 16 and 18, further fueling hopes that coffee farmers will pocket big money on the payout date.
There is a catch to this utopic outcome, nonetheless. The upward trend must hold even when the season crop is dumped at the coffee exchange. Only then will stakeholders in the sector size up the price prospects more tangibly.
