NYERI, Kenya, Nov 6 – Hundreds of coffee farmers attached to the Nyeri-based Rui Ruiru Factory in Mathira have received a boost after signing a deal to sell natural coffee through the New Kenya Planters Co-operative Union.
The deal will see farmers deliver their natural coffee to the New KPCU who will mill and deliver the coffee to Crowd Farm Africa.
Crowd Farm Africa officer Samuel Wachieni said the firm will be tasked with exporting the fresh from harvest coffee from Rui Ruiru factory while Jamii Coffee LLC in the USA will be the buyer of the coffee.
“We as a firm have agreed to buy farmers coffee in its natural form what they need to do is just pick their crop dry the same in their factory without pulping, this will save farmers a lot of money,” said Wachieni.
Wachieni also revealed that the fresh from harvest coffee will be sold at an agreed price of Sh65 per kilo.
He said the new prices have managed to encourage hundreds of farmers to continue farming coffee and not uproot their coffee bushes.
Farmers who include Joshua Ngatia have welcomed the development saying it they will now have a reason to go back to their farms.
“We as farmers have every reason to smile since we know how a payout we can work with while producing our crop the sector revival is on its way,” said Ngatia.
New KPCU chairman Henry Kinyua says that the arrangement of buying unwashed coffee from farms is best for the industry revival.
“We as a body have embraced this model due to the fact that coffee production in the county has gone to an all-time low, indeed we are only producing twenty metric tonnes of coffee which is way below our capacity,” said Kinyua.
“He said that in the arrangement they will dry the crop further after receiving produce from farmers and mill the same to ensure it’s natural taste is retained.
He says that KPCU has realized that many farmers have abandoned their crop due to poor pay hence it’s resolve to assist farmers by seeking markets that guarantee good pay.
