Four-week closure of coffee auction ends this month after guidance

Operations at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) will resume mid this month, the auction manager confirmed yesterday. In a communique to players in the auction, marketing of coffee will resume on August 15, 2023

.Acting NCE chief executive Lisper Ndungu said the action follows receipt of guidance from the relevant licensing authorities on the valid licensed participants at the trading floor, guided by the Crops (Coffee) (General) Regulations 2019 and the Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations 2020.

“We are therefore scheduling Sale 30 to receive samples on August 3, 2023 and subsequently hold the auction on August 15, 2023,” she said in the communication.

The confirmation by the NCE secretariat follows a meeting held at the office of the President yesterday morning where it was resolved the auction resumes in two weeks’ time. Expected to start selling coffee during the scheduled auction are the 12 licensed coffee brokers.

The auction has been closed for the last four weeks following confusion over issuance of trading permits by the government, a situation value chain players claim is hurting farmers’ fortunes. The government is pushing for new reforms targeting to tame cartels said to be frustrating growth industry.

Issuance of licenses to various players was suspended in early last month after a coffee conference convened by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

During his address to the nation yesterday President William Ruto waded into the current situation in the coffee industry, blaming cartels and self-interested businessmen for their continued manipulation of the small-scale farmers. The auction, he said has experienced challenges for long, a situation that prompted the government to institute far-reaching measures.

“Yes, we have had challenges in the coffee industry for long, leading farmers not able to enjoy their hard-earned money. During campaigns last year we made a commitment to sort out the mess the industry is grappling with,” said Ruto. Coffee marketing agents yet to be licensed as coffee brokers have in their warehouses more than 250,000 bags of clean coffee worth close to Sh7 billion. It has also emerged that major coffee companies have temporarily closed their milling factories, citing lack of beans, a situation feared will plunge the industry into more chaos.

A source in one of the milling companies confirmed that they have started sending workers for one month leave until the situation normalizes.

The milling companies accuse county governments of denying them milling licenses, a situation they claim will compromise employment to the tune of 2,000 in the agriculture sector.