Deputy President Rigathi has committed to finding a solution to the coffee farming challenges in the country.
Speaking at the coffee reforms conference, a three day high level stakeholder’s engagement forum in Meru County, the Deputy President has vowed to ensure that the coffee sector returns back on track by eradicating cartels in the sector, improving prices and marketing of the once vibrant sector.
The second in command regretted that cartels have been rip off farmers of their hard earned income for far too long and warned them that their time is up.
“I assure farmers that the coffee sector will be back on its track once we completely eradicate all the cartels, improve coffee marketing and the price. Once we do this, Coffee production will automatically go up leading to sufficient and reliable foreign exchange while the economy will inevitably become vibrant,” said the Deputy President.
Gachagua promised to reverse the current situation where much of the coffee earnings go to the brokers who do little while the peanuts are left to farmers.
“The best way to restore the farmers’ dignity is to ensure they are handsomely paid and that they don’t live in poverty after their hard work which deserves better remunerations, Cartels have eaten enough and their time is up. 90% of coffee earnings should go directly to the farmers”, He added.
While responding to Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire question on what the government will do to tame alleged cartels in the coffee sector, agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi threatened to revoke licenses of all millers, marketers and buyers of the Kenyan coffee.
“We will seat down and see what measures to take but first, I will revoke all illegally acquired licenses so that we are able to eradicate the cartels”, said Linturi.
Trade and Industrialization CS Moses Kuria promised to liaise with the Council of Governors on what litigation measures to take from the county level in a bid to tame the cartels from sabotaging the coffee market.
