While there is optimism about current high prices for coffee in Kenya, the country’s output still remains low.

Business Daily Africa reports that in the last 4 auctions, Kenya’s premium coffee registered a 6 per cent sales growth. This growth has been attributed to the high quality of coffee being produced and increased demand, especially from the UK and America.

In the 1980s, coffee production in the country was around 170,000 tonnes while today it averages 50,000 tonnes. Research by the World Agroforestry Centre has shown that this decline is due to a number of factors, including the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989, lack of access to credit, poor policies and poorly managed cooperatives. (Read more).

The Kenyan Government estimates coffee output will rise by 22 per cent in the next 2 years as a result of an increase in the area under cultivation and the planned introduction of high yielding varieties.

Read the full story: Coffee price boom extends to 2015 on high demand for Kenyan beans

Related stories:
Declining coffee production in Kenya

Indigenous trees could suffer from changes to coffee production in Kenya