Kenya Coffee Auction Resumption Delayed To June 28 - Official

Kenya Coffee Auction Resumption Delayed To June 28 - Official

NAIROBI (Dow Jones)--The Kenyan Coffee auction, that was scheduled to resume
Tuesday, has been pushed back by two weeks due to low supplies, an auction
official said Tuesday.
"The cold spell in early May delayed the drying process," said Daniel Mbithi,
Kenya Coffee Producers' and Traders' Association spokesman. "We are getting few
lots [and] cannot sustain the auction."
The auction, which normally closes in July or August for an annual one-month
recess, this year closed April 19 due to tight supplies.
A total 12,092 50-kilogram bags were offered in the last auction. The auction
requires at least 30,000 bags to run efficiently.
Kenya coffee production has been in decline since the all-time high of
130,000 metric tons in 1987-1988 crop year [October-September], reaching a
record low in 2009-10 of 42,000 tons due to an unexpected change in the weather
which caused a high incidence of coffee leaf rust, the Coffee Board of Kenya
said in a report last month.
But production for 2010-11 is estimated to rise to 60,000 tons, buoyed by
improved weather and as farmers have been encouraged by high global prices to
tend their farms after years of neglect, Coffee Research Foundation Director
Joseph Kimemia said in an interview last month.
Kenya exports nearly 98% of its coffee output, mainly to the European Union,
U.S. and Middle East.