By Winnie Kamau
A delegation of global coffee importing and exporting countries as well as marketers
Convened twice every year, the meeting brings together exporting and importing governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation. Kenya is the 3rd African country to host the meeting after Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire.
According to Prof. Hamadi Boga, Principal Secretary State Department of Agricultural Research,“the event has attracted the interest of coffee growing counties in Kenya such as Kiambu, Murang’a and Embu including the private sector. To expose delegates to Kenyan coffee and culture at large, part of the meeting will involve coffee safaris for delegates.”
The meeting is set to attract over 600 delegates from around the world. Known to produce the best specialty coffee in the world, Kenya’s coffee subsector is now a shadow of its former self with numerous smallholder farmers over time neglecting the cash crop in pursuit of more lucrative options. In an effort to revive the subsector, the Government of Kenya has put in place several mechanisms to drive its turn around. Key among the interventions is the Coffee Sector Implementation Committee instituted in 2016 with the mandate to provide strategic leadership in the implementation of the coffeesubsector reforms.
“For the last two years, the ministry has been working on coffee regulations. These are now ready and will be submitted to the office of the Attorney General for gazettement within the month,” said Prof. Hamadi.
“There are over 450 cooperatives involved in the coffee milling process, some have gone ahead to do proper value addition. Cooperatives however continue to face significant governance challenges resulting in diminishing returns for farmers. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to deal with such issues. By providing subsidized costs for farm inputs and collectively enhancing coffee farming practices, we look to put more money in the pockets of farmers,” said Mr.Ali Noor, CBS- Permanent Secretary, State Department of Cooperatives.
Speaking about solutions to revive the coffee sub-sector, Prof. Joseph Keiyah, Chairman of the Coffee Sub-sector Implementation Committee said, “prescription remedy is embodied in the on-going trans-formative farmer-centric coffee agenda that consists of 8 pillars. Among them are: the legal and regulatory framework that protects and vest property right of coffee to the farmer, three years coffee subsidy program to address production and process costs, a coffee cherry advance fund to address late payment and modernization of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange to reduce transactions in the coffee auction.”
By hosting the world’s largest coffee meeting, Kenya is sending a message -We are committed to overhauling the coffee subsector and seeing smallholder farmers reap beneficial compensation for their toil. Further, the country looks to double its annual production output from 46, 121 MT to 92,000 MT over the next 5 years.
Speaking to the press, Mr. Jose Sette – Executive Director for the International Coffee Organization (ICO) said, “ ICO has been tasked with taking a series of measures to tackle global challenges facing the coffee industry among them the constitution of a sector wide dialogue that involves all value chain actors. The International Coffee Council (ICC) Meeting is a first step in this direction. All the same, each country has to do its own homework to make the sector more efficient.”
ICO’s mission is to strengthen the global coffee sector and promote its sustainable expansion in a market-based environment for the betterment of all participants in the coffee sector. Following extensive lobbying led by Prof. Keiyah, Kenya in 2018 received the green light to host ICC and its members during the 124th Session of the ICC Meeting that’s set to happen between 25-29 March 2019 at KICC. H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta and Cabinet Secretary- Agriculture and Irrigation Hon. Mwangi Kiunjuri are expected grace the opening ceremony on 26th March 2019.
