This archive report was first published on 22 November 2019.
Kenya is set to host the 59th Inter-African Coffee Association (IACO) Annual General Meeting (AGM) next week, bringing together over 400 global coffee value chain players to discuss strategies to enhance production, value addition, and intra-trade within the continent.
According to Principal Secretary State Department of Crops and Agricultural Research Hamadi Boga, the government has made significant strides in reforming the coffee industry in the last four years to restore its lost glory.
Reforms are being fast-tracked to restructure the collapsing cooperative systems, marketing, and enhance value addition, as well as encourage young people into coffee farming.
Kenya's coffee production has decreased significantly, from 130,000 metric tonnes in 1987/88 to between 40,000 and 50,000 metric tonnes currently, while Africa's coffee productivity has decreased to 10.5% from a high of 30% in the 1970s and 1980s.
Dr. Fred Kawuma, IACO secretary, noted that the average yields are mostly poor and declining, ranging from 100kg to 800kg per hectare, and that coffee production in the continent has been undermined by outdated and unproductive coffee varieties, pests, diseases, and changing climate.
The meeting will deliberate on the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and issues surrounding growth, as well as the need to increase coffee consumption in African coffee-producing countries.
