Embu Coffee Farmers Marketing Agency Officially Licensed As The 6th Broker

By Lynnet Okumu / Published May 10, 2022 | 9:23 am

KEY POINTS

Other players that have been licensed before includes Kipkelion Brokerage Company Limited, Murang’a County Coffee Dealers Company, Mt. Elgon Coffee Marketing Agency Limited, Meru County Coffee Marketing Agency Ltd, and United Eastern Kenya Coffee Marketing Company Limited.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Coffee production plays a massive part in the Kenyan economy providing approximately 230 million US Dollars annually and a source of livelihood for over 800,000 small-scale farmers. It is the second most grown cash crop in Kenya’s Kericho county after tea, covering approximately 2,000 Ha.

Embu Farmers Marketing Agency has been officially licensed by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as the sixth broker at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.

The move by CMA is in line with the Capital Markets Coffee Exchange Regulations, 2020.

According to CMA Chief Executive Wickliffe Shamiah, the Authority continues to engage relevant stakeholders in the coffee sub-sector to ensure that the momentum of the reform agenda is sustained and gains traction toward full implementation of the Coffee Exchange Regulations.

Coffee production plays a massive part in the Kenyan economy providing approximately 230 million US Dollars annually and a source of livelihood for over 800,000 small-scale farmers. It is the second most grown cash crop in Kenya’s Kericho county after tea, covering approximately 2,000 Ha.

Data by the International Coffee Organization indicates that Kenya, on average, produces 800,000 bags of coffee annually. The coffee industry export earnings have improved by 33 percent between 2014 and 2021.

And although there has been a slight drop in the production of the cash crop, the government of Kenya has developed various interventions to ensure full recovery of the coffee sub-sector, including establishing the Commodities Fund, Coffee Revitalization Program, Cherry Advance Revolving Fund, and E-Voucher Subsidy Program, among others.

Up to 15,703 farmers from 16 counties have benefited from the 2.7 billion shillings Cherry Revolving Fund whereby 177,836,478 shillings have been disbursed under the New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU).