Mombasa hosts key meetings for African coffee producers

By Philip Mwakio

About 40 coffee producers in Africa meet in Mombasa for a two-day workshop to deliberate on fair trade practices starting today.

The conference to be held at the Plaza Beach Hotel, is co-hosted by Oxfam Belgium, African Fair Trade Network (AFN) and UK based Twin.

Stefaan Calmeyn of Oxfam Belgium said the African Coffee Fair Trade Forum is being held in the continent for the first time.

"Fair trade is a system that guarantees fair prices to farmers and our main topic during the Mombasa conference is coffee,’’ he said.

The meeting has also drawn participants from Latin America and the US.

Calmeyn said the forum would be pushing for producers to have direct access exports.

"This will help address volatile coffee prices on the global market and help African coffee producers get better prices,’’ he said.

High earnings

Meanwhile a regional coffee forum kicks off in Mombasa this week.

Delegates at the African Fine Coffee Conference and exhibition would discuss, among other issues ways of reaping higher earnings from specialty coffees in the region.

The Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) is hosting the forum as part of efforts to boost the region’s multi-billion shillings fine coffees market.

Coffee farmers will also take part in the conference to be held in the coastal town from Thursday.

The EAFCA Executive Director Philip Gitao said stakeholders would discuss ways to improve coffee consumption in the region.

Kenya’s coffee export earnings increased by an estimated 10 per cent in the 2008/09 crop year on the back of stable prices in the world market.

The country earned Sh10.7 billion during the period, up from Sh9.7 billion during the previous crop year.

However, stakeholders believe there is room for growth of earnings if larger quantities of quality coffee are produced in the region and marketed more rapidly.

Annual losses

EAFCA says the region loses $100 million annually due to inefficiencies in transit of coffee. EAFCA data shows that it takes an average of 45 days for coffee beans to reach the port from the origin.