THE Kenya Coffee Producers and Traders Association wants coffee laws to be reviewed.
The head of the communications at the KCPTA Sylvester Odhiambo said the marketing and trading of coffee needs to be revamped to ensure farmers are the main beneficiaries of exports.
"The current system benefits multinational traders at the expense of coffee farmers are living in abject poverty," Odhiambo said.
He said most multinational companies dealing in coffee are licensed as millers and coffee buyers and therefore defraud farmers.
"The licensing fees for new coffee buyers are also high, creating a major setback for many local entrepreneurs" Odhiambo said.
He said county governments should understand coffee marketing models and use them to sell the produce and advocate for the creation of rules under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority Act that will secure the farmers' interests.
"We already have cooperative societies and farmers' unions, the next level in securing coffee growers' interests is to build coffee mills and roasting and packaging facilities in all counties. We also need good branding and county marketing associations that are equipped with adequate technical expertise," Odhiambo said.
The chairman of the association Humphrey Karanja said farmers are not represented in the Coffee Board of Kenya and this has left them vulnerable to exploitation.
During a seminar organised by KCPTA in Nyeri town on Saturday, coffee farmers from Nyeri asked the government to review laws on marketing and sale of coffee so that they can benefit from their produce.
The farmers said the marketing of coffee is full of bureaucracy and they are losing a lot of money to middlemen.
"We are asking the Nyeri county committee for agriculture to set up marketing association because we are suffering at the hands of unscrupulous coffee marketers," the chairman of Njuriga Coffee Farmers' Society Francis Kariuki said.
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