Kenyan coffee officials said on Thursday the threat of coffee berry disease (CBD) on the crop in the main coffee growing areas of central Kenya was insignificant despite worries expressed by some industry players.
Prolonged cold and wet weather has raised fears that the CBD would badly hurt production. But an official at the state-run industry regulator Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) said the concerns were exaggerated.
"It is nothing very serious, the estimated loss in production due to CBD is between 3-5 percent, which is not a very serious issue," said Bernard Gichovi, the coffee board's area manager for Mount Kenya West region, which covers top growing areas of Nyeri, Kirinyaga and EMU.
He did not give a figure on the estimated production from the area although some experts said it accounts for 70-80 percent of Kenya's total production.
Kenya is ranked as only the fifth largest coffee producer in Africa but has an international reputation for high quality arabica beans, grown mainly near Mount Kenya and used by roasters to blend coffees from other origins.
The government estimates that production for the current 2004/05 (October-September) crop year would be 65,000 tonnes compared to about 50,000 tonnes the previous season.
The affected crop is the main crop which farmers will start picking in October and November, Gichovi said. James Moorish, the estate manager at leading coffee grower Saison Tea and Coffee said wet weather and the extremely chilly weather that existed since May had triggered the disease.
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