A tiny lot of Kenyan AB coffee fetched $954 per 50-kg bag, the highest price for the speciality beans in nine years, industry officials said on Tuesday.
"There was a special vintage from Socfinaf but a very limited lot," Etienne Delbar, managing director of marketing agent Socfinaf, told Reuters. "The highest price was $1,080 nine years ago." The Nairobi Coffee Exchange confirmed the price.
The lot consisted of 4-1/2 60-kg bags and weighed a total 276 kg. The top price for AB coffee at the previous sale was $218 per bag. Delbar said the coffee was a wild Ethiopian variety that Socfinaf has been growing at its Oaklands Estate in central Kenya for the past couple of years. "This is the first crop we brought to the auction - that's why it is so small," he added.