The Nyeri County government has now asked the police to crack down on illegal coffee hawking, which some players in the industry are warning may have serious effects on factories.
County executive tells law enforcers that anyone found transporting coffee without a movement permit should immediately be arrested.
The Nyeri County government has now asked the police to crack down on illegal coffee hawking, which some players in the industry are warning may have serious effects on factories.
County executive in charge of Agriculture Robert Thuo, in a letter to the County Commander dated July 21, has told law enforcers that anyone found transporting coffee without a movement permit should immediately be arrested.
“The relevant government arms are requested to monitor, advice and warn the general public of the malpractice and apprehend the culprits,” says the county executive.
Some five factories affiliated to Mathira North Co-operative Society, the management says, may be forced to close down due to high operation costs given that members are delivering very little coffee, instead opting to sell at farm gate prices.
Society secretary manager Douglas Warutumo in a letter addressed to the county says they started laying off workers in 2015 after noticing a decline in supplies.
He said low supplies to their factories is an economic disaster in the waiting.
The society owns Kiamariga, Kabiruini, Hiriga, Ruiruiru and Kahira-ini factories. Last year Mr Warutumo made a similar complaint when he said that the illegal coffee hawking may lead to “closing some of our factories as we find out that our cherry intake is declining year per year”.
A factory, he points out, is supposed to have at least 50,000kg of coffee cherries to sustain itself. But Karunaini factory registered 34,696kg of coffee cherries in the 2016/17 season.
In 2013/14 season it recorded 122, 961kg and at the time, Mr Warutumo explains in his communication, hawking of cherries was not common. It only started noticing it in 2014.
Willing buyers For the whole of last week they have been busy selling their fresh coffee cherries to willing buyers.
Some have dared police to arrest them saying if their respective co-operative societies cannot pay them well, they will continue selling it to whoever is willing as long as they are paid on the spot.
On Thursday, Central regional police boss Gideon Amalla said he’s yet to get communication that Mr Thuo sent as he only reported to work last week.
There are several other factories in whose production is below capacity. Recently, the commissioner for co-operatives Mary Mungai announced that they had started a programme to merge some of the societies that are not economically viable.
This is in line with recommendations made by a task force President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed last year that made several other proposals on what needs to be done to turn around the coffee sub-sector.
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