The production of Kenyan coffee during independence in 1963 was 44,000Metric Tonnes and it increased to 129,000MT in 1987/88. Today, Kenya’s production stands at 40,000MT!
The coffee sub-sector is facing unprecedented challenges key among them; low earnings from coffee despite its premium quality, delayed coffee payments by up to 8 months!, mismanagement and inefficiencies in cooperatives, ageing farmers who lack incentive to invest in coffee farming, supply chain inefficiencies, competing cash crops primarily avocado and macadamia, diminishing farm sizes, restrictive coffee laws and high cost of production.
The two questions that are being asked about coffee reforms are:
1. How will small-holder coffee farmers maximally benefit from their coffee and
2. How can the coffee value chain be made efficient and affordable for smallholder farmers.
Now that the Ministry of Agriculture has published the Coffee Bill 2020, we should all join hands to ensure the Bill answers the two questions above give back hope and earnings to some 700,000 coffee farmers spread across 32 coffee growing counties.
