The government has initiated several reforms in the coffee sector focused on increasing farm income and transparency that ensures payments are made on time.
The Chairman of the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (New KPCU) Daniel Chemno said they are charged with carrying out these reforms, which include milling of coffee, marketing, distributing coffee cherry fund, subsidizing farm inputs to farmers and also sensitizing farmers.
Speaking when he officially opened the East African Coffee Market & Conference in Nairobi, the MD observed that coffee production in Kenya has been steadily declining for the past 30 years, but that they are now witnessing a resurgence owing to coffee reforms that are currently in place.
He claimed that more than 590,000 farmers have already received Sh9.5 billion from the government’s Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund, which allows for instant payment upon cherry delivery.
“This is an initiative by the government where once a farmer harvests their cherry and take it to the factory, they are able to access Sh40 per kilo of cherry fund,” he noted
Chemno further said that the debt relief of Sh6.8B combined with affordable inputs and the Direct Settlement System (DSS) has ensured coffee farmers receive fair and timely payments, not just finance but also the restoration of dignity where it matters most.
‘’The three-day conference and exhibition that is running under the theme “Sustainable Growth and Market Access: Empowering East African Coffee Producers in a Global Market,” aligns directly with Kenya’s ongoing coffee revitalization efforts, where the focus is to rebuild confidence, restore productivity, strengthen cooperatives, empower farmers, and open new market pathways—grounded in the principle that prosperity must begin at the farm level,’’ the MD added.
Chemno said the government has been promoting direct sales through empowering cooperatives and estates to bypass auctions and access global buyers directly.
“We are also encouraging value addition at farm and cooperative levels, linking production to marketing and also giving farmers and cooperatives direct market access, ensuring farmers benefit fully from their produce,” he added.
The chairman said that the government plans to also revive coffee across the country by looking at all the old coffee-growing regions and also emerging coffee-growing regions so that Kenya could rebound and take its position at the high table of global coffee negotiation.
Chemno said that plans were in place to increase production of coffee from 50,000 MT to 151,000 MT by 2027/28, raise yields from 2 kg/tree to 6 kg/tree, increase national coffee earnings from Sh35B to Sh100B by 2028/29, and also raise clean coffee payments from Sh86/kg to Sh130/kg by 2028/29.
An advisor on crops and value chains within the President’s Economic Transformation Secretariat Henry Kinyua said the reforms had restored optimism in the sector and positioned Kenyan farmers to compete more strongly in regional and global markets.
“Currently, in Kenya, we have between 106 and about 200 million coffee bushes, and from this alone, we are producing on average about two kilos per bush. Increasing productivity means we need to have an average of six kilos per bush and this will see the country moving quickly from 50,000 to 150,000 metric tonnes of clean coffee,” he added.
Kinyua said the two regulations in place, namely the Coffee General Regulation 2019 and the Capital Markets Authority Nairobi Coffee Exchange Regulations 2020, that were passed in 2019 and 2020 are being implemented fully, albeit with significant delays and controversies slowing their adoption.
“A good policy which has not been implemented is worse than a bad policy implemented and the government needs to provide consistent policy implementation and number one is ensuring a farmer could be able to grow and export their coffee from their own farm without any hindrance and also be in the value chain as the farmer, miller and also a dealer, thus making it easy,” he noted.
‘’The marketing of coffee is bringing in changes and with the global prices doubling, Kenya’s price has increased by about 48 percent and cascading profits down to the farmers,’’ he added.
Kinyua further said that the coffee bill that was almost at the tail end currently undergoing mediation between the Senate and the National Assembly to finalize the legal framework would create a coffee board that will be in charge of coffee, and this will create an opportunity to strengthen the coffee research institute.
Nancy Cheruiyot, the managing trustee and CEO of the Commodities Fund, said they are providing credit right from the establishment of the market up to trading financing.
“Our loans are below 10 percent, and the highest is 7.5 percent,” she said but added that their main challenge of financing the coffee sector has been inadequacy of funds from the Exchequer.
She added that despite the little resources they have, they were ensuring that they meet especially the very smallholder farmers’ needs in terms of access to credit, particularly now with the DSS in place giving farmers loans with their security being their own coffee.
The CEO added that they were also looking outside the Exchequer with development partners, and the government is looking towards climate fund support.
She noted that from the exchequer, in the next year’s budgeting period that they concluded last week, they are looking at Sh5 billion from the government for the next three years to support the value chain.
Kenya is renowned for its high-quality Arabica coffee. While most of the coffee is exported to markets like the US and Germany, domestic consumption is growing.
By Wangari Ndirangu
