Nairobi — Coffee prices hit a record high this year during yesterday's trading at the weekly auction at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE), triggered by a scramble for the few available quality offers and steady prices in the international market.

Taking a cue from a record rally during last week's sale, the price of a 50kg bag of coffee hit $129.82 mark (Sh9,087, an improvement of about US$2 (Sh140) over the previous sale where prices broke a seven-month barrier.

Market analysts said a scramble for the few available quality offers and steadier prices in key international markets triggered yesterday's rally.

"The recent cold spell over most producing regions affected the development of berries resulting into suppressed offers coming through for trading," Daniel Mbithi an official at the NCE told Business Daily moments after trading closed.

Cases of Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) were also witnessed in several producing areas, effectively pulling down production volumes.

"The prevalent weather favoured the proliferation of Coffee Berry Disease resulting in huge late crop losses. During the survey, crop loss of up to 80 per cent was recorded in the traditional coffee variety dominated farms in upper zones of Embu, Kirinyaga and Nyeri," experts from the Ruiru based Coffee Research Foundation (CRF) said in a recent report on production prospects.

CRF citing the disease incident and cold spell revised the 2007 crop estimate from 53,214 metric tonnes to 48,710 tonnes -explaining the current slow turn out of offers to the auction.

But besides this suppression in the lot of offers, a steady enquiry for quality Kenyan coffee from dealers abroad also fuelled the price rally yesterday.

"We had a lot of interest from overseas buyers seeking for good coffee from the country...the demand for the commodity is generally high world over at the moment because of a dry spell in Brazil which has greatly influenced pricing in key global markets where prices have climbed nearly eight per cent this week," said Dirk Sickmueller of Taylor Winch Coffee Limited.

During yesterday's auction about 14,434 bags of coffee were on offer down from the previous' sales of 17,072 bags, a development that explained the huge scramble for the available volumes.

Top grade AA fetched $254-$167 while another premium grade AB was going out for $185- $145 per 50-kg bag.

This performance is expected to firm confidence in the industry that has been shaky since the start of the year amid mixed performances in earning.

The discontent over earning at one time nearly spilled over as players sunk into blame games over alleged price fixing by some marketers.