A section of MPs from coffee farming counties want cartels out so farmers, who have long been exploited, can finally make money.
They said on Thursday that Parliament should come up with laws that will ensure farming returns to where it was in the 80s.
Lawmakers including Moses
Kuria (Gatundu South), Gabriel Kago (Githunguri), Robert Githinji (Gichugu) and Kiambu Woman Representative Gathoni Wa Muchumba addressed the press after a meeting at
African Coffee Roasters (ACR) in the Export Processing Zone in Athi River, Machakos county.
Kago said they were surprised to learn that ACR buys coffee from farmers at Sh800 per kilogramme but that they receive only Sh120 due to cartel members who act as middlemen.
He said they will push for legislations to remove all cartels and shorten the market chain, with farmers selling their produce directly to companies.
“We will work with ACR EPZ to help our farmers grow organic coffee. Large, medium and small scale growers will all be considered. It is easier for them to go organic,” Kago said.
“We want to help coffee farmers ... we are all from coffee farming counties and were educated by coffee. Coffee cannot do anything now. It is a gone issue
[sic]."
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Kuria said his Crops Amendment Bill, 2018 will ensure a ban on the exportation of unprocessed coffee.
“It is embarrassing that we are still putting our coffee in containers 55 years after independence," he said.
“The bill will make all millers, processors and grinders benefit from the business. It is the only way to ensure value addition and good prices for our farmers."
Kuria further said coffee farming
is the only way for people in growing regions to escape poverty.
“My bill is in line with the Presidents Big Four Agenda. Coffee, tea and milk are important to the Kenyan economy so they should not be under-looked," he said, noting the key aspects of streamlining the value chain by getting rid of brokers, working with ACR to give milling capacity to cooperatives and training growers on organic farming.
Kuria asked counties to invest in coffee milling plants.
“We will call the Export Promotion Council to Parliament so they can tell us what they will do to open us up to the global market," he also said.
Early in July, DP William Ruto said coffee farmers across the country will benefit from a government subsidy aimed at reducing the cost of farm inputs.
He said the government budgeted Sh1.5 billion for the subsidy, which will enable the farmers buy fertilisers at lower prices as part of efforts to transform the sector.
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