MOMBASA, Kenya – The Kenyan government has announced this week the establishment of a coffee research institution to revive coffee farming and production, which has been declining in recent years.
Plans are underway to establish the Coffee Research Institute stated Principal Secretary of the State Department for Agricultural Research in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation Hamadi Boga
This comes even as the amount of coffee exported continues to drop.
In March 2019, data by the US Department of Agriculture attache in Nairobi revealed that Kenyan coffee production in the 2019-2020 financial year dropped to 650,000 bags, the lowest production in over 50 years.
Similarly, Boga said Kenya has been exporting about 44,000 metric tonnes, down from 140,000 metric tonnes it used to export annually.
“Kenya still remains an agro-based economy. We need to give confidence to our farmers and tackle the problem of governance around corporative societies in coffee sector,” he said.
Boga was speaking during the official opening of the two-day 18th Africa Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibitions.
“The government has agreed to finance the Coffee Research Institute, that will help us come with drought-resistance crops, value addition techniques and ways of attracting youth into coffee farming,” said Boga.
