Roundup: Kenya Coffee Farmers Adopt Home Processing To Seek Better Prices
From: msn.com
Some small-scale coffee farmers in Kenya have started processing their coffee to protect the quality, aiming to get a share of the lucrative premium export market where quality coffee beans fetch a premium price.
Data from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange shows that top quality coffee known as AA grade fetched up to 45,326 shillings (about 427 U.S. dollars) per 50-kg bag compared to a price of 199 dollars fetched by the majority of the coffee during the auction that ended on May 24th.
Samuel Muchiri, 44, a farmer in Kirinyaga County in central Kenya is among small-scale farmers who have embraced home-based processing to avoid mixing their coffee with the rest of farmers in order to maintain quality and therefore get a better price.
“Coffee has money. But it needs to be of high-quality coffee. That is why I decided to do home processing to ensure I maintain high quality,” Muchiri told Xinhua on Friday at his farm.
