Page 2 - Daniel Mbithi News Today

The auction, which is set to break for a month starting May, has been characterised by a shortage of quality beans for trading in the last couple of weeks.

The price of the commodity has been on a constant decline since February as the high-quality beans from the main crop dwindles, cutting down on demand.

Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) has announced that the auction will hold its last auction on May 4 before breaking for one month.

Data from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) shows the market recorded a turnover of $7.1 million (Sh816 million) this week.

Monthly coffee earnings rose 62.5 percent to $130 million (Sh14.8 billion) in February, helped by a global shortage due to a bad crop in Latin America.

Monthly coffee earnings rose to a record $50 million in December as Kenya reaped from the frost that destroyed the crop in Brazil and the civil wars in Ethiopia.

Coffee prices fell for the fourth consecutive auction last week due to high volumes of produce from western Kenya and Central region hitting the market.

The price of coffee at the weekly auction dipped by 1.3 percent on buyer concerns about the lower quality beans offered for sale.

A market report by the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) indicates the commodity fetched Sh37,074 per 50-kg bag.

Brazil has been experiencing severe frosts in its coffee belt this year, leading to lower coffee production and increase in international prices.