Kenyan coffee crop to be unaffected by floods: board

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's coffee crop will not be affected by floods in the east African nation although too much rain may encourage disease, the chief executive of state-run Coffee Board of Kenya said on Wednesday.

The heavy rain attributed to El Nino weather patterns across east Africa has caused the deaths of at least 20 people, caused landslides and affected several thousand people in eastern and north east Kenya.

"Generally, the coffee is grown in the highlands, so the prospects of flooding, we don't expect. Unless of course it becomes like the Noah's times," Loise Njeru told Reuters by phone.

Kenya is a small coffee grower compared with other producers worldwide, but its beans are renowned for their good quality and highly sought after for blending with coffee from other regions.

Njeru said she expected the rains to boost quality, but if too much of it fell, disease would be a concern.

"We expect whatever is on the trees to be better, to be higher quality, but we are cautious that if it gets too much, it could also affect in terms of diseases, in particular, CBD (Coffee Berry Disease)," she said.

The board projected the lack of rain earlier in 2009 to slash Kenya's coffee harvest from a projected 54,000 tonnes for the 2009/10 season.