Direct coffee sales a move in the right direction

Traditionally crushed coffee berries. [Jephitha Mwai, Standard]

The government's coffee sector reforms, spearheaded by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, appear poised to start bearing fruit. More than 20 international buyers are currently in Nyeri County to attend a week-long coffee expo.

Besides visiting farms to witness first-hand how Kenya's world-famous coffee is grown, the buyers from United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, the UK, the US, Germany, Singapore and China will have a chance to buy the commodity at the factory level through the direct sales system.

This means that middlemen will be cut off from the supply chain and will only smell the aroma of the coffee. They will not count the money.

Such an arrangement, of course, will be beneficial not only to the Kenyan farmers but also to the international buyers as in the absence of the middlemen, it will put more money into their pockets.

This concept has already worked well in Kericho, Nandi and Bomet counties where last year, farmers nearly doubled their earnings through direct sales to a South Korean company. Only last week, Mr Gachagua inked a deal with Java Coffee Company for the purchase of 10,000 bags of coffee directly from farmers.

It is important for Nyeri farmers and international buyers to go beyond the current expo and forge long-term trade relations. Besides financial benefits, such close interaction will lead to even better quality coffee as feedback from the customers will be instant.

That said, it is noteworthy that 20 international buyers cannot buy all the coffee produced in the county. We need more such direct buyers in Nyeri and other coffee-producing counties.

Kenyan coffee is well known worldwide due to its quality, but it is a shame that farmers' earnings are rarely commensurate with the efforts they put into producing the commodity. They deserve better.

As it is unlikely for all our farmers to sell their coffee directly to international buyers in the foreseeable future, the government should not relent in its efforts to root out the cartels it accuses of eating where they never sowed or even toiled. Soldier on, Mr Gachagua.