Coffee farmers criticise societies over low price
What you need to know:
- Ndumberi coffee farmer Raymond Wanyugi said the cost of production surpassed the payment. In other counties, including Nyeri, growers are paid as much as Sh80, he said.
- Farmer James Kamau, from Githunguri, said they had been receiving below Sh20 per kilogramme.
Farmers in the county have complained about the low coffee prices offered by local societies compared to others in the rest of central Kenya.
They said their respective societies paid between Sh20 and Sh30 per kilogramme of coffee beans delivered, which meant losses.
Ndumberi coffee farmer Raymond Wanyugi said the cost of production surpassed the payment. In other counties, including Nyeri, growers are paid as much as Sh80, he said.
“The cost of producing and delivering a kilogramme of coffee beans to a factory currently stands at Sh35. When farmers are paid between Sh20 and Sh30 for the same quantity, they are getting nothing,” he said.
Senator Kimani Wamatangi asked both the national and county governments to intervene and help farmers in looking for good foreign markets.
Mr Wamatangi was concerned that many farmers were abandoning the previously lucrative crop to venture into other sectors, including real estate, due to poor prices, a situation which has also befallen tea growers.
The senator called on the government and the private sector to invest in value addition, saying this would ensure that primary coffee producers got better returns.
The county government, he said, should eliminate brokers who had been determining prices at the expense of farmers.
IDENTIFY BETTER MARKETS
Farmer James Kamau, from Githunguri, said they had been receiving below Sh20 per kilogramme.
Recently, some growers from Githunguri said they would ask to be allowed to deliver their produce to Nyeri County, where prices have shot up since 2013. This year, some farmers in Nyeri were paid Sh80 per kilogramme of produce delivered.
Governor William Kabogo recently said his government had embarked on a drive to identify better markets for tea and coffee.
