Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

AUCTION: The Ministry of Agriculture has extended coffee trading rules for one more year, cooling the simmering row between farmers, marketing agents and Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

In a special Kenya gazette dated July 2, 2021, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya extended the licences that were expiring on June 30, 2021 for another 12 months.

The extension now overtakes a set of licences issued last month and the three-month notice issued last month by the CMA to all the players interested to be coffee brokers.

Munya in the special gazette amended regulation 46 of the Coffee (General) Regulations, 2019 by deleting paragraph (c) and replacing it with new provision. 

“Notwithstanding the provision of paragraphs (a) and (b). All marketing licenses existing as at July 1, 2021, shall remain valid until June 30, 2022,” said Munya.

Millers and marketers under the umbrella of the Commercial Coffee Millers and Marketing Agents’ Association (CCMMAA) welcomed the extension, saying it relieves fear and confusion to the farmers and investors.  

James Muriithi, chairman of the association said the reform agenda in the sub-sector needs to be carefully and inclusively undertaken to prevent interruption of the market.

“As value chains we support reforms, the government is fast- tracking. However, the current form of the regulations requires to be relooked further before they are implemented and equally all the necessary governance structures,” he said in a phone interview.

Munya while launching the National Coffee Revitalisation Plan at a Nairobi hotel on Monday explained that the Coffee Bill 2021 in the National Assembly will cure all the challenges currently bedevilling the coffee industry.  

MP Jude Njomo, a member of the National Assembly Agriculture Committee  said the legislature is behind the reforms with a view solving  problems the industry is struggling with.

Current regulations

This means all the current regulations – Coffee (General) Regulations, 2021, Capital Markets (Coffee Exchange), Regulations 2020 among others in the coffee industry will be revised once the Coffee Bill 2021 is enacted into law.  

The extension of the licences comes barely two weeks after CMA issued a three-month notice starting July 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021 to all value chains interested in being coffee brokers.

Further, CMA later issued the first set of licences to five coffee brokers -Meru County Coffee Marketing Agency Ltd, Kipkelion Brokerage Company Ltd, And Murang’a County Coffee Dealers Company, Mt Elgon Coffee Marketing Agency and United Eastern Kenya Coffee Marketing Company.