Waiguru leads dialogue on proposed coffee Direct Sales and Settlement, advises stakeholders to consolidate agreeable proposals

Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru has advised coffee stakeholders in Kirinyaga County to consolidate their views on the proposed coffee Direct Sales and Settlement regulations that have been contested by a cross section of farmers in the county.

In a consultative meeting with representatives from Capital Markets Authority, Agriculture and Food Association, Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) Farmers’ Cooperative Societies and Unions, the county’s department of Agriculture and department of trade and cooperatives, Waiguru said that it was important to consider the grievances raised by the farmers in order to eventually settle for a system which is agreeable to the various stakeholders.

A cross section of farmers in the county have said that the new coffee Direct Sales and Settlement proposal will disadvantage farmers as well as their cooperative societies. Some of the issues raised is the farmers’ ability to access advance payment and affordable loans from their factories as well as farm inputs that are normally deducted from their payout. They also raise concerns about their readiness to transition to direct payments raising issues such as data incompleteness, financial literacy and outstanding debts. They have also claimed that the new system will slowly kill their cooperatives.

The government on the other hand has hailed the system as one that will safeguard the farmers’ interests, increase transparency, minimize financial mismanagement and reduce delays in payments. The system to be overseen by the Capital Markets Authority bypasses the traditional payment method done through cooperatives.

“After through deliberations on the proposed process, its justification and the farmers’ opposition, we agreed that each group would consult further before reconvening to resolve the outstanding issues.” Said the governor.

Waiguru asked the stakeholders to come up with consolidated proposals that can be presented to the government for consideration so as to enable formulation of regulations that are acceptable across the board.

Kirinyaga County is a leading player in the coffee industry with an annual production of over 40,000 tons. Its coffee is milled and marketed through the cooperative system that incorporates about 120,000 small holder farmers from across the county’s coffee growing zones.

Governor Waiguru has consistently supported farmers to increase production as well as marketing their produce.  Her administration is currently constructing a modern warehouse at Kirinyaga Cooperative Union premises at Kimicha. The warehouse whose capacity is up to 40,000 bags of parchment coffee is designed with modern features to ensure quality preservation and will go a long way in addressing post-harvest challenges and improve earnings for the farmers.

Waiguru reaffirmed her commitment to empowering coffee farmers to increase earnings from production, coffee addition, processing and marketing with the aim of uplifting their living standards. She committed to fighting for favorable policies that will strengthen coffee farming and ensure that farmers from the county get value for their produce.

Kirinyaga coffee farmers market their produce under the auspices of their union’s Kirinyaga Slopes Coffee Brokerage Company which works closely to the County Government to improve the entire coffee value chain from milling to marketing. The firm attained its brokerage status in 2023 after governor Waiguru assisted in fast-tracking the issuance of its brokerage license at the Capital Markets Authority.

The firm has since been one of the best performing at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. During the last coffee season Kirinyaga farmers were among the best paid with some cooperatives paying as high as Ksh. 144 per kilo.