Introducing the rules of the international market to Kenyan coffee farmers
If you order a cup of coffee, you mainly want it to taste good. In the international market, however, more requirements are set. Are there good working conditions at the coffee plantations? Is production environmentally friendly? With the support of Hivos and coffee trader ECOM / SMS, small coffee farmers in Kenya receive training to be able to meet these requirements.
‘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.’
Most co-operative farmers are ill equiped to take full advantage of these new opportunities in the coffee business. Low production levels, usually 4 to 5 times lower than that of well managed coffee plantations in the same region, are unlikely to guarantee them any tangible benefit. Cooperative farmers lack knowledge on basic mangement and crop husbandry skills such as pruning, coffee handling, soil management, etc. and yet today’s coffee trade demand that they comprehend issues such as cupping, intergrated pest management (IPM), transparent record keeping and a respect for economic, social and environmental responsibility.
To take advantage of the opportunities and address the weaknesses of smallholder cooperative farmers, Sustainable Management Services Ltd. (SMS) was established on 24 July 2006 by Ecom Agroindustrustrial Corp Ltd in Switzerland and Sangana Commodities Ltd. Kenya. SMS focuses on management services for smallholders and small/medium estates, creating sustainable and feasible farming units through “best practices”. SMS offers coffee extension and advisory services on all aspects of coffee business, farm management services, training on best coffee practice, and coffee liquouring and quality training services, coffee sustainability and certification, risk management in coffee business, proposal writing and project managent on behalf of producers and provision of farm inputs and credit facilities to run the coffee business.
Hivos supports SMS because it addresses one of Hivos major concerns in Sustainable Production, namely incusion of smallholder coffee farmers in world quality markets.
Kenya coffee is in high demand on the world market due to its inherent superior quality. Consequently, premiums for these coffees have the potential to be high. The introduction of certification (eg. Starbucks, Fairtrade, CAFE practices, Rain Forest Alliance, Organic Coffee and Utz Kapeh) has the potential of adding further value to those premiums.
