While in  traditional coffee growing zones farmers have left the farms to grow into bushes and threatened to uproot them, a new attack is emerging  menacingly. This time, it is the growing appetite for real estate.

Thousands of acres of prime land under coffee are slowly disappearing as demand for high-end housing in peri-urban areas increases.

Areas most affected by the development are those surrounding major towns such as Nairobi, Kiambu, Thika and Nyeri, which are  known for their lush coffee estates.

“The returns you can get from a hectare of coffee as compared to real estate are smaller. Coffee also takes a lot of time for one to realise returns,” said Mr Muchomba.

He adds that the survival of the coffee estates now depends a lot on the kind of incentives that the coffee sector receives to improve its competitiveness against other sectors.