MP wants coffee farmers bailed out

The government has been asked to help coffee farmers repay debts which are threatening to cripple the sub-sector.

Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo said the sub-sector has debts which are estimated to have accumulated up to Sh40 billion over a couple of years. Back in 2010, the government gave a coffee waiver of Sh3 billion but it never settled the debts in the sector and the famers have been plunging deeper into the financial crisis.

“Just like the way the government has agreed to bail out the sugarcane farmers, the same should be done to the coffee farmers” he said.

The legislator said despite the produce fetching better prices at the market, a huge percentage of the returns has been going into repaying the debts and the farmer gets a meager pay.

“The loans have been eating into the earnings of the and they only get very little after the sale of the produce” said Mugo.