The farmers, through the National Coffee Co-operative Union (Naccu), want the proposed Crops (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 struck out. Naccu said in a statement released Tuesday that the proposed changes will weaken the Crops (Coffee General) Regulations, 2019 and the Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations, 2020, marking a return of cartels to the sub-sector. The proposed regulations, for instance, seek to introduce new entities called grower marketers to carry out the milling and marketing growers’ coffee. The proposed regulations also seek to introduce a new entity, called the auction organiser, to be organising coffee auctions in Kenya instead of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. Coffee farmers see this as a way of ousting the coffee exchange and disempowering farmers by giving other parties more control of the value chain.

Source: Standard Digital April 21, 2022 04:08 UTC