Kenya coffee cooperative invests in value addition

Undaunted by the poor coffee prices over the last two months, Kenya's Othaya Farmers cooperative society coffee producers are planning to invest in a 20 million Shillings ($300,000) milling plant. The farmers, who were recently granted licenses for milling and marketing by the Coffee Board of Kenya, are borrowing a leaf from their their Mathira counterparts, who early this year set up a Sh70 million ($1 million) commercial milling plant.

Apart from creating employment for the local people, the farmers hope to save on milling and transport costs, which constitute up to three per cent of the society's total expenditure, manager J.K. Ndegwa said. "The project will help local farmers to decide the right time to offload their coffee on the market," he said. He added that the mill will have a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per hour and will be financed through a bank loan and share contributions from the members.

The project will take five years and the 11,000 members are expected to buy shares in the plant within thate period, Ndegwa said. At the same time, he said, the society was still pursuing members of the former management committee in a bid to recover Sh7.5 million ($110,000) that they are alleged to have misappropriated.

Daily Nation