Kenyan coffee prices were unchanged at this week's auction, although some small lots of unwashed coffee fetched higher prices, exporters said on Tuesday.
"The market is exactly like last week - unchanged," said a trader at leading coffee exporter C.Dorman.
"But people are very short on unwashed coffees."
The average price was little changed at $70.73 per 50-kg bag compared to $70.45 per 50-kg bag at last week's auction, according to a weekly report from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.
AA top grades were sold at between $137 and $105 per 50-kg bag against $136-$118 per 50 kg bag at last week's auction.
AB grade sold between $94 and $75 per bag compared to $103 to $80 per bag at the previous auction.
Traders said the current prices of fair average coffees (FAQs) was expensive with farmers insisting on placing high reserve prices for their beans.
"In my view the miscellaneous catalogue has become very expensive," said Peter Kinyua, the managing director of Servicoff Limited.
There were 15,526 60-kg bags on offer at this week's auction, with 7,231 bags left unsold. Last week 13,253 bags were offered and 9,082 left unsold.
Kinyua said he expected prices to drop next week as the quality on offer was poor.
"Next week's coffees are quite disappointing. A good number of the cup is old and flat," he said in a market report. "Therefore prices may also be lower in all categories especially AA (grade)."