Towards a Sustainable Kenya Coffee

The Kenya Coffee Platform, is an inclusive county and national multi-stakeholder and pre-competitive, collaborative forum that seeks to provide a platform for coffee stakeholders both public and private, to freely interact, discuss, deliberate and address issues affecting the sector by:

Representing the voices of coffee stakeholders in addressing sustainability challenges such as low production, limited access to inputs, credit and extension services, climate change, low youth, and women involvement among others.

Creating harmony, synergy, and alignment among all coffee stakeholders involved in the value chain.

Acting as the knowledge point for the development partners and any other organizations willing to work with actors along the value chain.

The platform is already working with coffee stakeholders along the whole coffee value chain. To identify critical issues affecting the sector resulting in an increase coffee production and quality in the Country.

At county level we promote alignment in 5 agenda points:

  • Farmer Census, for clear planning on service delivery.

  • Soil profiling at county level to ensure correct soil management.

  • Harmonized material for training farmers and extension.

  • Seedlings availability.

  • Information on subsidized input, and cooperative performance audits.

Activities to date

  • County Coffee Platform Structure Study and Coffee Data Collection in 5 Pilot Coffee County Platforms in Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu, Murang'a and Meru to inform the best approach to use in formation of the County Platforms.

  • Study on Cost of Coffee Processing in Kenya to contribute to a better understanding of the main drivers of economic sustainability of coffee farming in Kenya.

  • Economic viability study – in-depth check on areas where the viability of coffee farming can be improved.

  • Harmonizing of training material for coffee in Kenya to ensure training providers have the best and latest knowledge to pass on to farmers. Resulting in the Kenya Coffee Sustainability Manual.

  • Periodic power breakfasts and webinars for stakeholders to discuss critical issues and policy matters.

  • Training of coffee training providers, public and private Master Trainers to date 1,002 public and private master-trainers.

Current Participants on the Steering Commitee

Key Partners in development

  • GIZ, The German Development Cooperation, implementing Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) support.

  • The Sector Partnerships Program, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs