The Nairobi Coffee Exchange opened the 2026/27 trading season on October 6 with the sale of 17,084 bags worth $6.2 million, or about Sh801 million, as buyers paid an average of $293 for each 50-kilo bag.
That works out to roughly Sh758 per kilo of clean coffee, or about Sh117 per kilo of cherry, the figure that matters most to farmers delivering to factories.
Fourteen marketing agents offered 1,045 lots. The mix leaned towards the better grades. AB made up 41 per cent of volume at an average of $325, while AA, at 16 per cent of volume, fetched the highest average of $338. C grade averaged $296 and PB $322.
Meru lots lead the board
The top price went to Muguna Farmers Co-operative Society’s Nchoroiboro AA from Meru, which sold for $382 to Sondhi Trading. Kipsinende FCS AA from Kipkelion followed at $367, and Mikumbune FCS’s Kandigi AA at $365.
Four lots tied at $363. Sondhi bought six of the seven lots that went above $362, which means a single buyer largely set the ceiling at the opening sale.
Certification premium is thinner than it looks
Certified coffee, covering Rainforest Alliance, CAFE Practices, Fairtrade, organic and EU deforestation-tagged lots, averaged $312 against $290 for uncertified coffee, a gap of about 8 per cent.
Comparing like with like shows a smaller reward. Within the same grade, certified AA earned $8 more, AB $14 more and PB $9 more, while certified C grade sold for $6 less. Most of the headline premium comes from certified lots being concentrated in the top grades rather than from buyers paying much extra for the label.
That matters for co-operatives weighing the cost of certification, and for the EU deforestation rules that require traceability for coffee entering Europe. If the premium stays modest, smaller societies may struggle to justify the audits.
Only 45 lots, about 4 per cent, were sold as confirmed at the fall of the hammer. The rest went through regular bidding.
Lower grades sold well below the top tier. Mbuni heavy, which made up 11 per cent of volume, averaged $214, and Mbuni light only $98. The exchange holds its second sale of the season this week.
Sources: Business Today | Kilimo News | Nairobi Coffee Exchange
Photo: Daniel Case / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
