KSh 41B at Auction, No Number for the Farmer: Coffee Board Must Publish by 30 NovemberKSh 41B at Auction, No Number for the Farmer: Coffee Board Must Publish by 30 November

We say that plainly because the number is missing, not because anyone has shown it is small. The Coffee Board of Kenya, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, the Agriculture Ministry and Parliament each hold part of the answer, and none has put a national figure in public. By 30 November, they should.

A good year that is not yet a good price

The Nairobi Coffee Exchange sold 770,034 bags in 2025/26, up 14.3%, and the value of sales rose 15.2%. On Mwenendo's arithmetic the average bag therefore fetched about KSh 53,244 ($409.84), against KSh 52,831 ($406.66) a year earlier, a gain of 0.8%. The analysis Mwenendo published on Saturday showed that the year's gain came from more coffee, not better prices.

The season has also ended softly. The average to May was KSh 43,780 ($337.00) per 50-kilogramme bag. In the week to 24 September the Exchange's weekly report put it at KSh 38,106 ($294.46), about 13% lower. Grade matters as much as the market: AA coffee averaged KSh 44,566 ($343.05) a bag that week, while UG2 averaged KSh 20,556 ($158.23).

What farmers can see and what they cannot

An auction total is the money a sale raises, not the money a farmer receives. Between the two sit brokers, millers, marketing agents and cooperative societies, each taking a charge, and the published totals show none of them. The market is also concentrated: Alliance Berries sold 222,329 bags and New KPCU 137,284, together 359,613 bags, about 47% of the total on Mwenendo's arithmetic.

The numbers can be published. Kirinyaga's coffee cooperatives announced payouts for 2025/26 ranging from KSh 104 ($0.80) to KSh 157.40 ($1.21) a kilogramme of cherry, with an average of about KSh 139, as Citizen Digital reported.

That is a gap of KSh 53.40 ($0.41) a kilogramme between the lowest and highest payer, and it is visible only because one county's societies chose to say it. Mwenendo's earlier reporting on tea showed the same pattern, with bonus rates from KSh 12 to KSh 50 a kilogramme depending on the factory.

The case against, and why it fails

The objection is fair on its face. Payouts arrive in instalments over many months, cherry is not the same product as clean coffee, societies run their own affairs, and a single national average could mislead.

All of that argues for a better figure, not for no figure. Publish the range, the instalments and the dates, as Kirinyaga's societies did. An imperfect number that can be checked is better than a blank that cannot, especially when the Board's own chairman, Henry Kinyua, has said: "We are expecting improved prices in the year 2026/2027." An expectation about prices at auction becomes an expectation about farmers' incomes only if the path of the money is measured.

Four demands, due by 30 November

First, the Coffee Board of Kenya should publish the national average payment per kilogramme of cherry to farmers for 2025/26, with the range by cooperative society and the dates of each instalment.

Second, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange should add to its weekly report a standard schedule of the charges between the hammer price and the society, and the share of bags handled by each broker.

Third, the Agriculture Ministry should require societies to post each payment per kilogramme at the factory gate within 14 days of paying it. If it lacks the legal power to do so, it should say which law it needs changed.

Fourth, Parliament should ask the Board and the Ministry for these figures and make their answers public.

If the figures show farmers are paid fairly, the Board will hold the best news in the sector. If they do not, farmers deserve to learn that before they pick the next crop.