NAIROBI: Kenya is expected to produce 40,000 metric tonnes of coffee in 2015 down from the 49,000 metric tonnes recorded last year, officials said on Tuesday. The Interim Head of the Coffee Directorate Kiplimo Melli said the drop is largely due to the cyclic nature of the crop.
“The production from every coffee tree tends to alternate every two years,” Melli said during the Africa Coffee Outlook Conference. The two-day event brought over 100 delegates from Africa’s coffee producing countries to examine the challenges facing the sector.
Melli’s remarks came after he said in June that earnings are set to increase from the 190 million U.S. dollars achieved in 2014 to over 210 million dollars in 2015 as a result of the depreciating Kenya shilling as well higher international coffee prices.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries has been rolling out extension services to all coffee producing areas so that farmers can be sensitized on the most modern crop husbandry techniques.
Kenya has traditional exported semi processed coffee as little value addition is carried out in the country. Coffee contributes one percent of the East African nation’s Gross Domestic Product. In order to boost the industry earnings the government also liberalized the milling and marketing of coffee.
Government data indicates that Germany is the largest market for Kenyan coffee at 25 percent of all exports. He said that the declining value of the Kenya shilling against the U.S. dollars is expected to boost farmers’ earnings.
“So even with lower sales volumes, coffee farmers’ earnings for this year could be similar to last year’s,” he said. The East African nation exports over 95 per cent of its coffee due to the low level of domestic coffee consumption.
Melli added that Kenya is also exploring additional export markets in order to increase earnings from the sector. “We are currently looking at China and Japan which have expressed interest in buying Kenyan coffee,” he said.
Melli said Kenya is seeking to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with China in order to open up the lucrative Chinese market. Kenya is also formulating a coffee policy in order to increase coffee production. A multi agency task force has been formed to develop a draft policy by June 2016.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Sicily Kariuki said that coffee is a strategic commodity for many African countries. “Unfortunately, Africa’s overall production has declined in the recent past even as global production has increased,” Kariuki said. Only Ethiopia and Uganda has maintained steady production growth in the past decade. Kariuki said adverse climate change has taken a toll on the coffee sector and so research efforts must be put in place to develop appropriate mitigation measures.
