A few weeks ago, a number of coffee farmers told reporters that the weather was working in their favour and they expected high profits from a bumper harvest and high exports. Now was the time for it to come together, as the world’s biggest coffee producer, Brazil, struggled under bad weather conditions, pushing up the price of Arabica.
It is a good time for the country to capitalise on the shortfall. In previous years, the country was plagued with the effects of excessive rainfall, cold, and infestations of coffee berry disease, leaf rust, and bacteria blight, all of which affected the harvest.
Now, the increase in the price of Arabica is attracting previously disillusioned farmers back into the industry.
It’s not all positive news, however, as last weeks coffee arriving at the exchange has not met the earlier quality, and prices have started to ease slightly to reflect the lower grade.
The country earned Sh16.4 billion ($149 million) from coffee exports in the first half of this year, an 18 per cent increase from the Sh13.8 billion ($126 million) from the first half of 2020.
Kenya’s main season started in October, but the Nairobi Coffee Exchange has not yet had the bulk of the central growing regions crop in yet, which they expect to be higher quality.
