NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 23 – Kenya’s coffee farmers could soon sell directly to the world’s largest coffee chain in a landmark deal that would more than double their incomes.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua stated that the government held talks with US coffee chain Starbucks Corporation for the US government-backed deal midwifed by American Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman.
“Ambassador Meg Whitman has planned coffee buyers in America called Starbucks to meet with the President so that they can be buying our coffee directly,” he said.
“The Americans love our coffee. We have told them that what they are getting is the blended version. We have invited them to come and take our coffee in its original form and I am confident that they will be buying our coffee forever,” Gachagua stated.
Gachagua noted that more than five million Kenyans depend on the industry but they continue to suffer low incomes due to a dysfunctional system that appears to favour middlemen.
“The people who buy our coffee is not the Americans, it is bought by one European nation and then they sell it but they have do not even have a single coffee plant. They are just brokers now we want to remove them,” the DP stated.
Starbucks operates as a roaster, marketer, and retailer of speciality coffee.
The Seattle headquartered Company offers packaged and single-serve coffees and teas, beverage-related ingredients, and ready-to-drink beverages, as well as produces and sells bottled coffee drinks and a line of ice creams.
Gachagua stated that in a bid to ensure effective reforms in the coffee sector, the Cabinet approved an additional Sh 4 billion for coffee farmers.
The funds will see farmers earning Sh 80 a kilogramme of cherry from the current Sh 20 a kilogramme as an advance payment.
