Coffee auctions at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) have been cut to be held every two weeks, contrary to the previous weekly basis, owing to low supply and depreciating stocks at the exchange. The volume of coffee offered for sale at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) dropped to average 10,000-20,000 bags per auction against 30,000 bags. During last week’s sale, only 10,851 bags of coffee were offered for sale.
However, the trend is that, supplies are often low at the start of Kenya’s coffee season (Oct-Sept) but pick up as the season progresses, in line with the harvest cycle. Charles Mbaluka, the chief executive of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) says that the situation will be expected to persist until December and January when the new crop will start coming to the market.
Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) Statistics showed that coffee exports earned KES 26 billion in 2010/11, up from KES 16 billion in 2009/2010.