Two African entrepreneurs have set up east Africa's first Internet coffee auction.
The two Kenyans are aiming to revolutionise the region's coffee trade with an online system designed to link exporters with new buyers from Europe, the United States and Japan.
One of the founders, Mr Titus Gitau, said the idea could lead to higher prices for the region's coffees, better marketing, and faster transactions.
"We've just set up an Internet exchange which theoretically can revolutionise everything," Mr Gitau (33) said from the Nairobi office of his Lion Coffee Company brokerage. "Now we know it can work, we're supremely confident".
The auction at www.africanlion.com is designed to trade some of the world's finest "speciality" beans - Arabicas from Kenya, Yergachaffe and Sidamo from Ethiopia, Bugisu from Uganda, along with top grades from Rwanda and Burundi.
Selling the best coffee relies on a complex system of mailing samples to allow overseas buyers to taste the quality of lots ahead of the auction - a custom exporters say might be hard to replicate on the Internet.
Nonetheless, Mr Gitau and co-founder Mr Stephen Njukia held what they said was Africa's first Internet coffee auction earlier this month, attracting roasters from Japan and the United States.
Only two of the 17 lots on offer were sold, but the business partners took heart from participation by big-name Kenyan exporters C Dorman Ltd and Taylor Winch (Coffee) Ltd.
The co-founders said the coffees commanded higher prices than they would have done at the weekly auction as the convenience of the Internet lured new Japanese buyers, sparking fast and furious bidding.
Mr Gitau and Mr Njukia can also take encouragement from Brazil. Japanese and other roasters have paid an average of 10 times world market prices to snap up beans offered at an Internet auction for gourmet Brazilian coffees.