Farmers raise coffee quality in bid to boost their incomes

Small-scale coffee farmers are expected to earn premium prices in world markets with the support of a Netherlands NGO. Solidaridad has offered to work with farmers to implement quality requirements for the produce under the Utz and Fair Trade certification schemes.

“Solidaridad gets funds from donors to help smallholder farmers in implementing certification codes,” said Mr Karugu Macharia, the organisation’s regional director. Farmers have in the past blamed certification, which is an expensive affair, for locking them out of the lucrative speciality coffee markets.
Certification through Utz, for instance, costs Sh1.6 million while through Rainforest it costs Sh580,000 and Four Seas Sh400,000.

Safety standards: The amounts are usually denominated in hard currencies such as the dollar and the euro, which were exchanging at Sh94 and Sh135 against the shilling, respectively, last week.

Other costs include paying for regular audits conducted by independent firms, which check implementation of certification standards. Auditors are sometimes flown from abroad at the cost of the farmers whose produce is being certified.

Implementation itself can also be very expensive since it may require a complete overhaul of production process, such as fertiliser and chemical application, health and safety standards, record keeping, and fair labour practices. Solidaridad helps farmers mainly through training, consultancy and budget support.

Certified coffee: The support programme has already helped seven coffee co-operative societies to implement certification while eight more are on the waiting list.

The quality standards ensure that farmers meet a set code of environmental, social and economic parameters in coffee production, including documentation, to facilitate tracking of the certified coffee.

After meeting these standards, their coffee is labelled as certified through several of the available certification schemes such as Utz, Fair Trade, Four Seas and Rainforest Alliance.

Buyers in key coffee markets are willing to offer premium price for the certified coffee that would boost farmers’ earnings. To help bring down the costs of certification, farmers have been advised to carry out their own regular internal audits which will help reduce the time it takes for external auditors to inspect them.