Tuesday, 17 November 2015 18:15
NAIROBI: Kenya expects its coffee harvest to jump by almost a quarter to 50,000 metric tonnes in the 2015/16 crop year which runs until next September buoyed by initiatives to boost production and to crop cycles, the country’s crop regulator said on Tuesday.
Earnings from coffee exports were expected to increase to 20 billion shillings ($ 196 million) based on current exchange rates, up from $ 182.53 million the previous year, Alfred Busolo, acting head of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority, told Reuters.
Kenya is a small coffee producer, accounting for just 1 percent of the world’s annual crop, but roasters seek out its quality Arabica beans to blend them with coffee from other regions. Coffee is one of Kenya’s main foreign exchange earners.
Busolo said the projected 22 percent increase in output was partly due to initiatives to boost production from farms including increasing acreage in new growing areas in the west of the country.
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Coffee output also normally follows a cyclic pattern, with a year of poor harvest followed by a high output year. Busolo said the crop was now in a recovery period.
The Kenyan shilling has weakened 11.29 percent this year due to strength of the dollar on expectations that the United States will boost interest rates and also due to Kenyan domestic factors, such a widening current account deficit.
