Coffee farmers to wait longer for pay

Nyeri coffee farmers who sold their produce through a marketing campaign championed by the county government will have to wait longer for payment.

 Interestingly, their counterparts who declined to join the controversial pool marketing system spearheaded by Governor Nderitu Gachagua, have received payments worth Sh186 million. Contacted for comment, the governor declined to pick his calls.

Recently, speaking in a local vernacular radio station, Mr Gachagua said Sh1.6 billion had been received but farmers will not be paid yet because some proceeds would service debts. He was flanked by Kenya Co-operative Coffee Exporters (KCCE) chief manager Lucy Murumba.

Delay of payments has put him on a collision course with farmers because rules in the coffee trading system specify that earnings must be remitted within a specified time frame.

Reacting to this, leader of Majority in the County Assembly Anthony Kibuu said yesterday: “He now admits that he has sold the coffee and kept the money contrary to the Coffee Act, which provides for release of coffee proceeds within seven days of the sale and not more than 14 days. He has opened the county government to censure in the Assembly,” said Kibuu.

Gachagua spoke in the wake of allegations that farmers had lost Sh1 billion following delays in taking their produce to the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) and other markets, due to disagreements. He said the parchment that the county government handed to KCCE from Sagana Coffee Mills produced 93,000 bags of clean coffee of which only 8,000 bags will be sold to interested buyers.

Coffee worth Sh1.9 billion has been committed to buyers with Sh1.6 billion in the accounts of KCCE awaiting  transmission to co-operatives and eventually to farmers. County Trade Secretary Stanley Miano had earlier in the week said sales had been made to companies from USA, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Italy and South Africa.

Previously, Gachagua said he was facing difficulties lobbying for his coffee pool marketing system because some MCAs in the crucial Agriculture Committee were opposed to it. He singled out the committee chairman James Kibira.

According to reports by the Kibira’s committee, farmers in the pool system could at best earn an average of Sh40 per kilo while those who declined to join the system could fetch between Sh45 and Sh75.50 for the same.

KCCE’s Murumba said they will take two per cent of the amount in marketing charges totaling Sh380 million. “There are demands by some parties for some of the farmers earnings to be withheld as debts from the previous seasons and that is what is delaying payments,” said Murumba.

The debts include Sh131 million claimed by millers and marketing agents in unsettled payments from the previous seasons for which Gachagua and representatives of the former had to sign a consent before Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei to allow Nyeri coffee to trade at the NCE.

Gachagua claimed the disagreement over this debt had prevented the county produce from trading at NCE between the opening of the marketing season in December 2013 and last March.

He said this had made Nyeri coffee to be remain on sale long after the main market season had ended subsequently contributing to delayed payments to farmers.

The county government plans to consult farmers in the 23 societies to approve payments of debts from the earnings which means their is a likelihood that the earliest possible payment date is September or October.