Kenyan coffee prices gained ground at Tuesday's auction, lifted by an improvement in quality and aggressive buying by one exporter covering a short position, traders said.
The trader bought about 40 percent of the coffee sold at the auction, traders said.
The average price for the auction improved to $75.21 per 50-kg bag compared to $70.73 per 50-kg and $70.45 at the last two sales, according to a weekly report from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.
The price of AA top grades were sold at between $134 and $117 per 50-kg bag versus $137 and $105 per 50-kg bag at the previous auction. AB grade were sold at between $111 and $80 per bag compared to $94-$75 per bag at last week's auction.
Traders said buyers were competing aggressively for coffees sold by estate farmer and marketer, Socfinaf, who had better quality coffees on offer.
There were 14,709 60-kg bags on offer at this week's auction, with 3,847 bags left unsold. Last week 15,526 bags were offered and 7,231 left unsold.