'Uninvolved' coffee farmers petition MPs over levy, EU market rules

Coffee farmers are against a proposed law President William Ruto’s administration is cobbling to streamline the sector.

The farmers say they were not involved when the final legislation was drawn.

The Coffee Bill 2023, which is due for the third reading in the National Assembly, allows roasters and small businesses to buy coffee from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange for processing.

Farmers are up in arms that their suggestions during public participation on the proposed law were not taken up in the final legislative piece.

Through their umbrella - the National Coffee Cooperative Union - the farmers are mulling to petition Parliament to consider stepping down the proposed law.

A vote on the same is nigh.

“The Senate made some amendments and so was the National Assembly. They need to understand that farmers must be involved,” Naccu's Festus Bett said.

He pointed out the proposed increase of coffee levy to 2.5 per cent and the skewed representation of farmers in the proposed coffee board, among other concerns.

The bill originally provided for 2 per cent (which they were equally uncomfortable with) but MPs have sought to increase the coffee development levy to 2.5 per cent.

The farmers want the one per cent that was proposed in a bill, which was moved by the President Uhuru Kenyatta administration.

“The board as proposed has more government officers than farmers. In the drafting stage, we had more farmers. Why not give the farmers a bigger stake?” Bett asked.

Members being seconded to the board should be elected by farmer associations and not appointed as proposed.

“We want our representatives to be vetted by farmers. Farmers are equally underrepresented in the proposed board of the Coffee Research Institute [to be established in the proposed law],” the CEO told journalists in Nairobi.

The farmers union also noted that the proposed institute has been allocated a small budget.

Further, farmers want the laws harmonised so that the coffee sector is superintended by one ministry or government agency.

They held that the sector cuts across seven ministries, none of which they say wants to take responsibility for the sector's woes.

“Coffee is handled by four ministries, which brings confusion leaving farmers to suffer. We feel the sector is overregulated,” the union boss said.

“The many agencies that are keen on controlling the sector are bringing confusion to farmers. They cannot address the EUDR issue as no one is taking responsibility. We have no one to hold to account,” Bett stated.

As a result of the many entities governing the sector, Naccu says there are inconsistencies in the data of farmers.

Whereas some government agencies state that there were 330,000 farmers, the union says it has a membership of over 600,000 farmers.

“Farmers need to have representation to deal with the gaps,” Bett said.

He spoke at a time when farmers are staring at losses for non-compliance with fresh requirements to access the European Union market.

The EU deforestation regulation states that the EU will not take up coffee harvested from deforested land. It takes effect on December 30.

It has since emerged that Kenya is yet to fully comply with the set of laws which also affect soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa and rubber.

Companies dealing in coffee would thus be required to prove that the product does not originate from recently deforested land.

“We have not done EUDR. Tanzania and Ethiopia have already complied. We have a case of buyers rushing to take our coffee to beat the deadline. They are messing up the prices,” the union said.

Kenya was lagging behind and would take time to match Uganda and Tanzania, whose prices are attractive in the global market.

The Ruto administration should borrow a leaf from the neighbouring countries which have working strategies for the sector, the union officials said.

 “We need to do EUDR faster so that we become compliant. We have small and medium farmers from 33 coffee-growing areas who will be affected. Let the government listen to us. The prices are going high but we are not benefiting,” Bett said.  

“There is a crisis everywhere...we doubt we will have coffee next year. Why doesn't tea have similar challenges?”