Kenya: Coffee farmers in Mount Kenya seek direct access to buyers

Nyeri — Coffee farmers in the Mt Kenya region want the Kenya Kwanza government to open up marketing of the crop through the scrapping of the Nairobi coffee exchange and allowing farmers to deal directly with buyers. Speaking during a farmers' field day at Ndaroini coffee factory in Mathira, the farmers said that the so-called reforms will not bear fruits unless they are allowed to sell directly to buyers in need of specialty coffee globally. "The so-called reforms currently being initiated are of no consequences to coffee farming, what our Deputy president and MPs from coffee growing areas need to address is the marketing of the crop, currently they are only eight brokers in Nairobi auction who collude and set up prices, when will the farmers earn from their sweat?" wondered Joseph Mukua chairman of the factory. Mukua said that unless farmers are allowed to sell directly to buyers they will still be exploited and coffee production will continue to deteriorate. "At the moment our ...