Murang’a Coffee Farmers Receive Lowest Pay in 5 Years

Coffee farmers in Murang’a County are staring at the proverbial 42-day January with disbelief after receiving the lowest pay in the last half-decade.

The farmers in Murang’a received an average of 27 shillings per kilogram for their 2017/18 cherry deliveries. This pay ranks as the lowest rate since the 2013/14 season.

The coffee farmers first received an advance payment of 10 shillings per kilo in August before getting 17 shillings as the final pay starting December.

The farmers are obviously an angry lot after the pay which seems to be a mockery to their hard work which has since led to a large group of them vowing to quit farming the crop.

“It is our understanding that the rates at the auction never went below 189 shillings, farmers should not receive less than 80 percent of gross market sales. No farmer was supposed to receive less than 100 shillings even with overheads’ deductions at the factory level. This is a tragedy,” said the Chairperson Lower Kigumo Coffee Growers Association, Simon Njoroge.

Paul Mutua, the area coffee development officer, however, attributed the situation to low volumes which he blamed on unreliable weather conditions that caused coffee diseases. “Coffee earns exclusively on market quality. The prices at the auctions are no lead on how factories will earn. It is about the volumes you produce as a region and its quality,” Mutua said.

Mutua added that in 2013/2014, the gross payout to farmers per kilogram was 42 shillings, which increased to 55 shillings in 2014/2015. In 2015/16 deliveries, the average price was 45 shillings.

Murang’a County has for centuries been hailed for its productivity in coffee, a product that has been a top earner for Kenya while the farmers and their families continue to wallow in poverty. Coffee brokers, middlemen, and processors have on several occasions been called out for their greed which frustrates the pricing.