Coffee production remained steady as Central Kenya remained untouched by ongoing political violence that followed last week's presidential election.

Coffee Board of Kenya production manager, Bernard Gichovi, said output is expected to remain on course.

"More than 70 per cent of Kenyan coffee comes from the Central region that has not been hit by ongoing violence," said Mr Gichovi.

The political turmoil broke out in the middle of the coffee picking season that started in September last year. It is expected to go until April this year.

Produce from coffee producing areas in the Rift Valley is, however, expected to decline significantly.

Millers in the Central region continued to collect coffee from farmers assuring the industry of steady supply in the medium term.

The millers and marketing agents are targeting part of the Sh3.1 billion that coffee farmers in Central Province realised in gross sales in 2006.

Kokoth Sylvester, the value addition manager at the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU), said collection of coffee from farmers was going on smoothly.

He said inability to transport the coffee to the Dandora milling centre had forced KPCU to divert the produce to the Sagana depot.

Production for 2007 is, however, expected to take a dip pushed by irregular weather patterns in the region.

Despite good rains, experts said erratic weather patterns had adversely affected the flowering cycles of crops and ultimately the output.

Heavy rains in January, February and early March caused poor flowering, the experts explained.

Ideally, coffee requires less moist periods during its early stages to aid flowering.

In August and September, the crop also requires a dry spell for hardening of the fruits in readiness for ripening and harvesting.

Estimates of the expected drop in production have been placed at 20 per cent from last year's production of 49,000 metric tonnes.

Mr Gichovi said that the only part of the industry that will be affected is the auction sale.

Next weeks' auction that had been planned for Tuesday has been postponed by a week to January 15.

Pushing the date back could have partly been influenced by the on going post-poll chaos that has left most businesses closed after the holidays break.

This means that millers will be piling up stocks in readiness for the auction when it resumes.