This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
Kenya's coffee industry is in crisis, with farmers unable to sell their produce due to a dispute over trading regulations.
At the heart of the issue is the Ministry of Agriculture's delay in publishing a notice extending the old rules, which were set to expire last month.
The Treasury had introduced new rules transferring oversight of coffee auctions from the Coffee Directorate to the Capital Markets Authority, with the aim of increasing farmers' earnings and boosting transparency of transactions at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.
However, coffee marketers refused to trade under the new regime, prompting the Ministry of Agriculture to extend the old rules temporarily.
With the end of the extension and the marketers declining, the sale of coffee has stalled, with farmers losing millions of shillings by the day.
As the impasse continues, the government needs to make a firm decision on the rules and procedures of trading coffee to end this confusion and ensure smooth trading.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, earnings from unroasted coffee dropped to Sh20.3 billion in 2019, and this disruption of transactions can only make this year worse.
It is time for the government to take decisive action to resolve this row and restore confidence in the coffee industry.
Published on July 16, 2020, 2:28 am.
