Kenya's weekly coffee auction was stopped on Tuesday over a fee payment dispute between regulatory body the Coffee Board of Kenya and a farmers' representative group, auction officials told Reuters. The board had instructed officials at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange not to let the Kenya Planters Co-operative Union (KPCU) sell its coffee due to non-payment of statutory fees.
"When we were trying to implement those instructions, they (KPCU) came and insisted that they must participate. So there is a stalemate. We cannot continue with the auction," said Daniel Mbithi, executive officer of the exchange.
He said KPCU wanted to sell 3,000 bags of coffee at the auction in Nairobi, with a total of 27,000 bags on offer. KPCU enjoyed a monopoly status for many years, milling and marketing coffee for small farmers who are grouped around factories that are scattered across the country.
But the milling business was opened up to competition in 1994. Then the marketing business was opened in 2002, reducing KPCU's influence in Kenya's coffee industry. The East African nation's high quality coffee beans are sought after by roasters who blend them with coffees from other regions.