By Peter Mutai
Coffee farmers in Kipkelion District are
constructing a coffee-processing mill at the cost of more than Sh58 million.
Co-operative Development and Marketing
minister Joseph Nyagah said the construction of the mill, which is located at
Fort Tenan area, would be financed jointly by local farmers under the umbrella
Kipkelion District Co-operative Mill and the Co-operative Bank.
Speaking while laying the foundation stone
of the proposed coffee mill, Nyagah said the Co-operative Bank has advanced
Sh40.5 million to the mill, which is expected to be operational by December
this year.
Roads minister Franklin Bett, Energy
assistant minister and Kipkelion MP Magerer Langat and Sotik MP Joyce Laboso
and several senior officials from his ministry and local civic leaders attended
the function.
Nyagah said this mill will ease the burden
of transporting coffee to Nairobi for processing, saying the high
transportation costs had led to poor pay from the crop.
Better earnings
The minister said coffee prices in the
international market have risen with earnings ranging from Sh50 to Sh150 per
kilo of processed coffee.
“There is high demand of coffee in the
international market but we are only able to produce 40,000 metric tonnes per
year. We need to produce more of the crop,” he added.
Nyagah called on the Coffee Board of Kenya
to license more milling plants across the country in coffee producing areas
saying this would enable farmers process the crop.
Magerer said farmers in the area produce
about 5 million kilogrammes of coffee annually and challenged them to increase
production to more than 20 million kilogrammes.
He said the coffee mill will serve farmers
in Kericho and Bomet counties and asked the Coffee Research Foundation to
assist farmers develop new high yielding seeds to increase production.
