Project Kenya

‘In many developing countries, poor people in the countryside depend on the national and international markets for selling their crops,’ Hivos employee Coen van Beuningen explains. ‘These products need to meet international quality standards. The problem is the increase in the number and the diversity of these standards – especially for food crops. In order to manage that increase, large producers employ full-time quality managers. But their small competitors cannot afford them. This causes them to lose market share. Hivos wants to support them in improving their competitiveness.’

Hivos therefore takes a market approach to the problem of poverty. Van Beuningen: ‘In Kenya we do this together with the international coffee trader ECOM. They know the dynamic developments in the coffee market. ECOM devotes much attention to social and environmental quality.’ The coffee trader founded SMS in 2006. In 2007 this daughter organisation started a three-year project together with Hivos, in which 11,000 members of four coffee cooperations receive training.

SMS employee Charles Nzioka explains the training programme. ‘The members chose 240 so-called promoter farmers. Each of them lives in a group of 45 farming families, gives the right example and supports others with growing coffee plants – from pruning, fertilising and harvesting to protecting the soil and managing crop disease and pests. They also ensure that the families plan their work carefully and that they deliver high quality coffee beans.’

The goal is for the farmers to succeed in meeting the quality standards. This also means that in case of problems, they take measures as a group. ‘Because’, Nzioka asserts, ‘only if they join forces can they maintain and expand their market shares.’