Nyeri coffee farmers earn less as buyers cite poor quality

Farmers in Ndurutu Coffee Factory in Nyeri County will receive Sh8 per kilogramme of cherry they delivered even as buyers say the quality of their produce had fallen.

The factory’s gross net was Sh18 (per kilo) but the farmers had received Sh10 as advance payment at the beginning of the year which will be deducted when they are receiving their payments.

Some farmers could also be indebted to banks as they took loans at Sh20 which will be deducted from their earnings.

According to the factory’s manager Joseph Mwaniki, the market was good but the quality of their coffee was poor and it could therefore not fetch good money.

“Most of our coffee was classified as grade C,” he said.

He added that prices for their produce had deteriorated since 2011 when famers received Sh78 per kilo.

COFFEE REJECTED

He said a high percentage of their coffee was rejected by coffee liqourers because it contained an aroma that indicated that it had been affected by pests and diseases.

“If only farmers can look after their crop then we would not have such a challenge and they would not complain of poor payments,” he said adding that their coffee has been affected by the antestia bug.

The manager said there is prevalence of coffee berry disease and Leaf rust that will decrease this year’s production significantly.

The factory delivered 152,000kgs of coffee from about 500 farmers.

Mr Mwaniki said an incident in which 80 bags of coffee were stolen in 2015 was part of the reason for the poor earnings.

He said farmers, discouraged by the poor earnings, had neglected their farms which had resulted to poor coffee quality.

“Farmers are not looking after their crop as they also snub training sessions we organise for them because they are just disinterested due to the poor payments,” he said.