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Munya, CMA in fresh row over coffee brokers

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Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya has dismissed a deadline issued by Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in implementation of the new coffee rules, once again saying the regulator is not well structured to oversee agriculture commodities.

CMA had given traders up to July 1 this year to get new licences when the new coffee regulations are to take effect.

However, in a repeat of a spat that reared its ugly head last year, Mr Munya said that directive does not hold and that he will extend the timeline if he feels that its implementation is not ready.

The Cabinet Secretary (CS) said the crops Act is clear on who should regulate coffee, accusing CMA of ‘trying to look for business for themselves.’

“I don’t think they are properly structured to regulate agricultural commodity trading. They regulate securities, which is very different from agricultural commodities,” said Mr Munya.

“The Crops Act is very clear on who is to regulate commodities such as coffee and tea. When they give notices they are forgetting that Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) remains the regulator,” he added.

Mr Munya had last year warned that he will not allow CMA to take over the regulation of coffee as the transfer of Nairobi Coffee Exchange to the regulator was done without an amendment to the Crops Act which designates AFA as the regulator.

Mr Munya said the ministry will create an overall commodity regulator once AFA is restructured with the new body expected to undertake the regulation of all the agricultural commodities.

The Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange) Regulations 2020, which were gazetted in April last year, gave the authority the mandate to license the coffee exchange and brokers.

The markets regulator had allowed the older rules to be used pending the creation of the direct settlement system (DSS), with marketers required to remit the funds to the cooperative societies as they have been doing under the General Coffee Regulations.