The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.

Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
Email: [email protected]

NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Coffee farmers in Kenya want restrictions to selling their crop removed

News

By Patrick Alushula | Apr 11, 2016

A worker sorts out coffee cherries at a factory. Farmers want all restrictions to selling their coffee removed.

NAIROBI: Coffee farmers want the Government to allow them to trade their coffee at any stage of maturity without undue restriction.

Through Peasant Coffee Farmers Association of Kenya (PCFAK), the farmers want a task force set up by President Uhuru Kenyatta to repeal all restrictions in the law denying them the right to sell coffee at cherry level.

In a letter to the National Task Force on Coffee Sub-Sector Reforms, the farmers say the coffee law in its current form subjects them to an unfair playing ground, compared to farmers of other crops such as maize, macadamia, bananas, beans, fruits or milk.

“All scheduled crops, including coffee (should) be subjected to similar restrictions across the board. When coffee is traded by the farmer at the farm-gate level in cherry form, the farmer bears no more liabilities and costs,” said PCFAK in a letter copied to the Head of State.

According to the group, which draws membership from all coffee-growing counties, levies, by-laws and other regulations governing coffee farming in Kenya make the farmer incur a lot of costs along the supply chain.

Keep Reading

Buying cherry from the farmer will eliminate costs such as transportation, pulping and biomass management of the pulp. Also, in their submissions to the task force, PCFAK added that by allowing farmers to be paid before coffee leaves their farms, they will be well placed to negotiate for fair prices that can cover their production costs.

MIDDLEMEN

Through their chairman Peter Wangonya and Secretary General Waqambo Qambo, the farmers also want the role of middlemen scrapped off so that they negotiate prices directly with prospective buyers.

Further, they want the role of the farmer who opts to take the cherry to a cooperative society in Kenya to end at the parchment stage- where the coffee has been dried but unshelled. According to the CEO and lead consultant at Capacity Building Consultants Job Kareithi, the farmers will benefit immensely if the proposals are considered.

“Currently, there are a lot of unnecessary costs eating into the farmers’ income. Costs in the value addition chain are supposed to be addressed by different parties owning the coffee along the value-chain,” he said.

Other proposals to the task force include allowing farmers to be represented at all levels of coffee marketing by their elected representatives and introduction of crop harvest and market insurance by the government.

Currently, coffee farmers are not allowed to sell coffee cherries.

Instead, coffee has to be harvested, peeled, dried and its husks removed before any selling can begin. In addition, under the Kenya Coffee Act 2012, no grower is allowed to “roast coffee for sale, sell to any other person or purchase coffee from any other person.”

Contravening the law attracts hefty fines of between Sh50,000 and Sh1 million or imprisonment for a term of between two and 10 years or both.

In his recent State of the Nation address, President Uhuru waived coffee licensing fees and levies ahead of the report from the task force.
The Prof Joseph Kieyah-led task force is expected to present the report on the ailing coffee sector very soon after the lapsing of the initial March 24 deadline.