Kenya's coffee prices firmed at this week's auction, helped by increased demand for the small amount of coffee available at the auction due to the end of the main harvest season, traders said on Tuesday. Most of the coffee was of low quality.
"The reason why prices are quite firm even though the quality is fairly poor is because it's just the lack of availability of coffee at present and in the coming weeks until September," said Charles Cardoso, the managing director of CETCO, a leading coffee exporter.
An official at Nairobi Coffee Exchange said the coffee on offer was from the main crop, but in July, there would also be coffee from the smaller coffee season called the "fly crop".
But Cardoso said that the amount of fly crop available at the auction in the next two months would be minimal. "The first auction with fly crop is going to be in the week after next, but in very small quantities.
Although Kenya is not a big producer of coffee, its top quality beans grown in highlands near Mount Kenya are used to blend coffees from other origins.
Among the top grades, AA fetched higher prices than at last week's auction, while the price of AB dipped. The Nairobi Coffee Exchange said in a report on Wednesday that for the second week only one of Kenya's three coffee marketing agents, Kenya Planters' Co-operative Union, brought coffee to the auction.