South Rift coffee farmers cut costs with value addition

By NIKKO TANUI

For long, coffee farmers in Kericho, Nandi and Bomet Counties suffered losses amounting to 25 per cent of their crop value.  They had nothing to show after hard work.

Tired of incurring huge transportation costs to millers in Thika and Ruiru, the over 40,000 farmers belonging to 32 coffee cooperative societies decided to form Kipkelion District Cooperative Union Ltd.

They established their own milling factory at Fort-Ternan, Kericho County. They raised 18 million for the purchase of coffee milling machine.

They in addition borrowed more  Sh40 million from the bank to put up  factory structures.

milling losses

Their effort is beginning to pay off. Kipkelion Coffee Milling plant which began operation six months ago has reduced milling losses from 25 to 17 per cent.

“In the history of coffee milling in Kenya, we are the only factory to have registered the lowest percentage losses,” noted Kipkelion Coffee Mill General Manager Sammy Too.

He discloses that since the mill began its operation in January, they have received a total of 1,202,900 kilos of parchment coffee.

“So far, we have milled 1,044,627.30 kilos and thus leaving a balance of 158,272.70 kilos to be milled,” said Too. The milling charge is $60  (Sh5,220) per tonne which is one of the lowest in the county.

The general manager says the Union will value add coffee to boost returns for farmers in the region. This, he said will be through milling, grading and transportation.

It will also market and coordinate coffee research and other matters related to the coffee industry .“We also aim to render advice on good coffee husbandry, processing and marketing, supply farm inputs,”  he said.

“We will also do coffee processing and packaging materials at affordable costs to our members.”

quality controls

Too points out that they intent to reduce milling costs by five per cent yearly by 2017.

 This will be via training of farmers at milling level and introducing coffee quality controls.  The union  will also improve the quality of coffee grades (AA, B, C, TT, PB) by 10 per cent annually by 2017. 

Other plans in the pipeline include procurement of processing materials, enforcing proper sorting pulping, fermentation, drying, milling and storage.

Too observed that they also aim to act as an umbrella organisation by lobbying and arbitrating in matters affecting the coffee industry in the region. The Union has established coffee nurseries that supply farmers with seedlings so as to improve on production.

The Union has employed eight permanent staff and 50 casual laborers. Its share capital is estimated to be at Sh18,465,440 with a turnover of Sh6,312,900.  Too opines that marketing is the biggest challenge facing the union.

Increasing production

He noted that the Union will maximise local and global market and support from both national and county government to shore up revenue for farmers. 

These will be done through value addition, branding and registration of a marketing entity.

“Our Strategic Plan for 2013 – 2017 is to increase the quantity of coffee (parchment) received from affiliates from eight million kilos to over 12 million kilos per season by 2017,” he says.

 This will be achieved through; training farmers on quality coffee production, improve payment rates.

 The union will pay members promptly in addition to  providing them with farm inputs. It will also establish more coffee nurseries, adopt good agricultural practices.

 “Our objective is to increase incomes from coffee by 20 per cent by 2017 by carrying out specialty market survey. These will act as alternative markets, coffee quality controls and income and expenditure controls” he said.