• Proposed amendment to Crops Act states that product may only be distributed in fully processed form.
• MP wants all packages of processed coffee for export clearly labeled ‘Made in Kenya’.
Image: FILE
Processors sourcing coffee from Kenya may soon be faced with an uphill task getting supplies following a proposed law banning the export of raw berries.
The legislation by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria posits that all coffee grown in Kenya shall undergo processing, production and packaging within the country.
The proposed amendment to the Crops Act states that the product may only be distributed, marketed or exported in its fully processed form.
Kuria also seeks to amend the crops law to provide that all packages in which the processed coffee is export be clearly and conspicuously labeled ‘Made in Kenya’.
The lawmaker wants the law to provide for mechanisms by which county governments may set up parastatals or other bodies to regulate the roasting, milling, packaging and branding of coffee.
“The Bill is to ensure that for the purposes of a favourable balance of trade and balance of payment, coffee shall not be processed from Kenya in its raw form,” Kuria says in his proposal.
The MP says coffee farmers do not reap the maximum benefits from their produce owing to the imbalanced trade.
This is because countries to which Kenya exports coffee re-export the same after processing but at a price higher than what they paid to berry suppliers.
Kuria further wants regulations for enforcing the Act amended so that the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary is compelled to ensure that coffee is exported only in processed form.
“The Cabinet Secretary may, in consultation with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) and county governments, make regulations for the better carrying into effect of the provisions of the Act,” the Bill states.
The proposal, if approved by Parliament, will be a reprieve to coffee farmers, some of whom have cut their coffee trees citing lack of market.
Coffee is the second-most traded commodity after oil, beating logic why the government turned a blind eye to one of its top export earners.
As Kenyan coffee farmers continue being impoverished, earning a measly Sh10,000 annually from the crop, multinationals processing the produce have their incomes rising fourfold.
The country is reputed for producing one of the best strains of coffee with good taste and aroma, hence has the upper hand in the market but has been exploited by MNCs.
However, despite the measures taken by the government to protect farmers produce more, Kuria says this cannot succeed unless the berry producers are protected from exploitation.
President Uhuru Kenyatta while opening the 124th session of the International Coffee Organisation council in Nairobi in March said the government has set aside Sh3 billion to create a fund to support small-scale farmers.
Uhuru said the money, to be disbursed starting July, will help in harvesting and loss reduction at farm level as part of the government’s commitment to reviving the crop.
About 95 per cent of the coffee produced locally is exported to the international market, exposing it to price volatility.
This is worsened by a weak shilling against the dollar with a surplus supply from Brazil which produces the same Arabica strain that Kenya boasts of.
The Coffee Directorate reported that farmers earned Sh9.04 billion in April, which is lower than what they earned during the same period last year by Sh2 billion.