Kenya: Coffee Board Bets On Online Trade to Boost Sales - AllAfrica.com

Allan Odhiambo

The Coffee Board of Republic Of Kenya is exploring the possibility of starting the 3rd window of java gross sales which affects selling the java online. This come ups one twelvemonth after gap of the 2nd known as direct sales.

Sources said that the move is meant to guarantee husbandmen acquire maximal benefits from the liberalised sector.

According to the board, the 3rd window will take up a particular class of high class forte coffees.

Once placed on the website, the high class javas will be unfastened to any willing purchaser in the human race who commands highest.

Still in preparation stages, the new option of merchandising java will be tried and if successful, it will be rolled out nationally.

Currently, most of Kenya's top class javas are sold through the java auction bridge which accounts for 95 per cent of the sum java sold in the country. The remaining five per cent is sold directly to purchasers through the direct sales.

According to java board's Michael Mungai, the 2nd window have got taken up most of the top quality javas sold from the country.

"Speciality javas have mostly been going through direct sales," said Mister Mungai. But in its first twelvemonth of operation, the 2nd window failed to ran into the outlooks of husbandmen and stakeholders.

This have got got been blamed on deficiency of capacity to transport out international trade by both commercial and agriculturist selling agents.

The 2nd window have however picked in its 2nd twelvemonth and figs from the board show that about 20,000 bags of top class java have been sold directly to foreign purchasers so far for the twelvemonth 2007/2008.

This Marks a 100 per cent addition from the 10,000 bags which were sold through direct gross gross sales in 2006/2007.

Despite the pronounced increase, direct sales still stay far less than the traditional auction bridge system which managed to sell 259,219 bags of chief grade, miscellaneous and common java for the twelvemonth 2007/2008.

But unlike the 2nd window which aims specific purchasers in specific purchasing countries, the 3rd window will widen the possible marketplace to include all willing purchasers internationally.

"This would be an sweetening of the 2nd window and would do it more than competitive," said Mister Daniel Mbithi of Republic Of Kenya Producers and Coffee Traders Association.

Mr Mbithi said minutes in the 2nd window are only known by the purchaser and seller, whereas the 3rd window would addition the figure of people who cognize the forte javas on sale and are able to offer for them thus increasing competition.

Experts state that with the renewed energy injected into farms , sufficient measures of high class javas will be produced for the 3rd window.

Boosted by rising terms of java and increased support from government, java husbandmen in the state have renewed their attempts in improving quality and measure of java produced. According to the head lickerer, this have got made the quality of Kenyan java to better by 30 to 40 per cent since 2002.

"Top quality classes and qualities of java are increasing because of the renewed involvement from husbandmen and promising terms from the auction bridge and direct sales," said Mister Mungai.

Mr Mungai said forte java is the manner to travel as Kenyan husbandmen tax returns to production of high quality coffees.

To hike production of the forte coffees, the board have been educating husbandmen through workshops, seminars and extension services meant to better their crops.

Coffee Millers and sellers have also chipped in to help husbandmen with farm input signals and production techniques meant to hike the quality of coffee.

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The authorities also recently cleared loans worth Sh4.2 billion liberation husbandmen who were almost giving up on the crop.

This was followed up with the induction of the Coffee Development Fund to assist the husbandmen better their java farms.

Despite these efforts, the current production which stood at 50,000 metrical tones of voice last twelvemonth is still seen as deficient to ran into the demand for high quality coffees.

Kenya: Coffee Miller to Pay Farmers Sh84m - AllAfrica.com

Silas NthigaNairobi

A tribunal have ordered a java Miller to pay husbandmen in Embu over Sh84.5 million as compensation for java they delivered the mill nearly 10 old age ago.

Embu occupant justice James Joyce Khaminwa ordered Thika Coffee Robert Mills Company to pay the money to husbandmen affiliated to Mikiki Cooperative Society as compensation for 3,439 bags of parchment java and another 803 bags of dried berries (Mbuni) they delivered to the company for milling. After milling, the company was meant to submit the harvest to the Coffee Board of Republic Of Kenya for marketing.

The orders were issued after a drawn-out legal conflict between the two, which started in 1999. The husbandmen had sued the Miller through their combined society.

Through their lawyer, Mister Moris Njagi, the husbandmen had accused Thika Coffee Robert Mills of failing to honor the understanding it had entered with them at the clip of delivering the crop. The factory was meant to mill the java and then submit it to the Coffee Board of Republic Of Republic Of Kenya for marketing.

The board whose function have since changed to that of marketplace regulator was then the exclusive seller of all the java grown in the country.

Under the agreement, Thika Coffee Robert Mills was also to progress the husbandmen with loans and farm input signals using the delivered java as security.

The husbandmen had sought orders compelling the Miller to releases the java to the Coffee Board Kenya for selling or tax return it to them.

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Lady Justice Khaminwa said the husbandmen had a lawsuit against the miller. She ordered the house to pay the husbandmen Sh77,588,005.30 for the harvest they delivered for milling and a additional Sh7,000,000 for damages. The Miller was also ordered to pay accruing involvement at tribunal rates.

But the justice absolved the Coffee Board of Republic Of Kenya from incrimination saying it was not apt for the losings incurred by the husbandmen since the harvest had not been released to it by the miller.

There was exultation among the husbandmen immediately after Lady Justice Khaminwa delivered her ruling.

Geographical indications set to boost Indian coffee sales

Coffee Board places 13 parts based on agro-climatic, taste profile.

The International Coffee Organisation's (ICO) move to present geographical indicants (GIs) for java in its member states is likely to hike gross sales of North American Indian java globally.

As a first measure towards the acceptance of GIs, ICO is holding a seminar — Geographical Indications for Coffee — in Greater London on May 20.

The seminar will discourse the issues of labelling, traceability and certification, the current legal issues relating to geographical indicants and the usage of geographical indications.

"The seminar anticipates to educate members about attacks to merchandise differentiation, which can be an of import selling tool in a competitory market," said Néstor Osorio, executive manager director, International Coffee Organization.

"India is known globally for shade-grown 'mild' java and is the lone state growing all its java under shade. The java grown here is typically mild and not too acidic. It possess an alien full-bodied taste and a mulct aroma," said a Coffee Board official.

When java terms plummeted in 2002 and 2003, the Coffee Board took up the issue of merchandise distinction and branded different parts in the country.

Since then, it have identified 13 java growing parts based on agro-climatic conditions and the taste sensation profiles by holding cupping competitions.

"The gilbert tag for different parts in Republic Of India is likely to see region-wise promotion of java and assist getting higher terms realisations," the Coffee Board functionary pointed out.

DIFFERENT java GROWING regions

Annamalais (Tamil Nadu) — Entire country under coffee: 2,500 hectares; mean production: 1,500 tonnes; chief intercrops: pepper, orange, and banana.

Araku Valley (Andhra Pradesh) — Entire country under coffee: 20,000 hectares; mean production: 3,100 tonnes; chief intercrops: pepper, mango, jackfruit, and vegetables.

Bababudangiris (Karnataka) — Entire country under coffee: 15,000 hectares; mean production: 10,500 tonnes; chief intercrops: pepper, cardamom, and arecanut.

Biligiris (Karnataka) — Entire country under coffee: 800 hectares; mean production: 700-800 tonnes; chief intercrops: orange, banana, and pepper.

Brahmaputra (Assam) — Entire country under coffee: 5,000 hectares; mean production: 300 tonnes; chief intercrops: pineapple, pepper, jackfruit, and vegetables.

Chikmagalur (Karnataka) — Entire country under coffee: Arabica (37,000 hectares), Robusta (23,000 hectares); mean production: Arabica (29,000 tonnes), Robusta (30,000 tonnes); chief intercrops: pepper, cardamom, arecanut, orange, and vanilla.

Coorg (Karnataka) — Entire country under coffee: Arabica (26,000 hectares), Robusta (56,000 hectares), norm production: Arabica (24,000 tonnes), Robusta (69,000 tonnes); chief intercrops: pepper, cardamom, orange, banana, and arecanut.

Manjarabad (Karnataka) — Entire country under coffee: Arabica (31,700 hectares), Robusta (9,400 hectares), norm production: Arabica (21,000 tonnes), Robusta (9,500 tonnes); chief intercrops: pepper, cardamom, orange, arecanut, and banana.

Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu) — Entire country under coffee: Arabica (3,600 hectares), Robusta (4,000 hectares), norm production: Arabica (1,400 tonnes), Robusta (2,800 tonnes); chief intercrops: pepper, orange, banana, ginger, and vegetables.

Pulney (Tamil Nadu) — Entire country under coffee: 14,000 hectares, norm production: 7,500 tonnes; chief intercrops: orange, banana, pepper, cardamom, and vegetables.

Shevroys (Tamil Nadu) — Entire country under coffee: 5,000 hectares, norm production: 3,000 tonnes; chief intercrops: orange, banana, and pepper.

Travancore (Kerala) — Entire country under coffee: 13,000 hectare and mean production: 9,000 tonnes; chief intercrops: pepper, banana, ginger, vegetables, and medicinal plants.

Wayanad (Kerala) — Entire country under coffee: 67,000 hectares and mean production: 54,000 tonnes; chief intercrops are pepper, banana, ginger, and vegetables.

Coffee Board breathes easy as morning showers stop

BANGALORE:
The morning time rainfalls which washed away the pollen grains on the first twenty-four hours of the
blossoming of the Arabica java harvest in Mysore on Saturday did not present an
encore on Lord'S Day and Monday. India’s Coffee Board
chairman GV Krishna Rau, who had on Saturday expressed serious concern if the
blossoms were hit by morning time rainfall on Lord'S Day and Monday, told ET: “Our
anxiety have been alleviated. The blossoming time period is for three days. The damage
has been confined to the first twenty-four hours and we gauge that not more than than 5,000
tonne of the approaching 2008-09 harvest will be lost.” (Harvesting of Arabica
beans gets in November.) Morning rainfalls on the years of
blossoming of the java harvest are dreaded because they rinse away the pollen
grains and pre-empt the procedure of fertilization and fructification into coffee
beans. Mysore turns almost 75% of India’s Arabica crop, accounting for
60,000 metric ton of the country’s 2007-08 Arabica harvest of 82,000 tonne, less
than expected because of a heavy monsoon. Officials were looking at a 2008-09
national Arabica harvest of 1,00,000
tonne. However, there were
heavy morning time rainfalls on the first of the three-day blossoming time period in almost
all Arabica-growing pockets in Mysore and there were anticipations that it
would rain down the adjacent two years also. The lone economy saving grace was that some 30% of
Karnataka’s Arabica harvest had blossomed in February. Which still left 70%
at risk. A one-fourth of the remaining 70% (17.5% of the overall Mysore crop)
blossomed on Saturday. And one-half of the remaining 70% (35% of the overall
Karnataka crop) blossomed on Sunday, and the balance on
Monday. The Coffee Board
chairman added: “The feedback from our men of science and extension-staff is
that there was nightlong rainfall in some pockets which continued on Lord'S Day morning. Fortunately, the rainfalls stopped by 9 am and there was bright sunlight for long
enough for the buds to flower without the pollen grains being washed away. And
Monday morning time was a comparatively rain-free day. There have been no studies of
rain on blossoming years in the Arabica-growing areas of Tamil Nadu. Neither
there have been studies of rainfall on the blossoming years in India’s
Robusta-growing areas, barring Nelliampathy (in Kerala’s Palghat district)
where 1,000 metric ton could be lost. The overall impact for the 2008-09 harvest is far
less serious than initially apprehended, especially for
Arabica.”

Fifty piping hot years of Indian Coffee House

KOZHIKODE:
If you nip a cup of hot java at the Indian Coffee House, you lend to the
cause of the workings class. The popular eating house chain, tally by workers’
cooperatives, Marks its aureate jubilee this
year. There are about 70 Indian
Coffee Houses in Kerala that dish out idli, dosa, vada, biryani and of course
coffee among other things. But since the concatenation have subdivisions all over India, the
fare changes from part to
region. You can be certain of
tasty, clean and reasonably priced menu at the Indian Coffee House. The Kerala
branches work under two workers’ societies, one based at Thrissur and
the other in Kannur. “We
serve 10,000 afternoon repasts a twenty-four hours and 25,000 people visit our 17 outlets
daily,” said I Volt Sivaraman, president of the Kannur-based Indian Coffee
Board Workers’ Cooperative Society. The all-India subdivisions are under their
respective regional societies, most of which are affiliated to the All India
Coffee Workers’ Cooperative Societies’
Federation. The societies in Kerala
were put up in 1958 and are celebrating their aureate jubilee this year. It was a
year earlier in 1957 that the java houses came to be owned by workers. The
Coffee Board, which was running these restaurants, decided to fold them and
retrench the
workers. Witnessing the plight
of workers, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader A Kelvin Gopalan, the
first leader of the resistance in the Indian parliament, organised them and
founded the Indian Coffee Board Workers’ Cooperative Society. The first
society was put up in Bangalore on August 19,
1957. “Now, there are 11
Indian Coffee Board Workers’ Societies in the state and they have got more
than 300 restaurants. There are also three societies which are not affiliated to
the all-India federation,” states Sivaraman, who is also proxy president of
the federation. “The
society is truly a workers’ cooperative. The president is elected from
among the workers. Any worker can contend the polls. The society is run by a
board of directors, with workers as members,” said V. Sasidharan Nair,
president of the Thrissur-based workers’ cooperative
society. “We have got 52
restaurants across Kerala. Last twelvemonth the turnover rate was Rs 340 million. The
society is a non-profit organisation. As a workers’ venture the profit
will travel as benefits to them,” helium added. The java houses vouch that their
aim is to supply quality nutrient at a low
cost. “You cognize how the
price of provisions, especially rice, went up here. We did not tramp the prices
proportionately,” said
Sivaraman. The Kannur society
clocked a Rs 130-million turnover rate last fiscal year. However, the net income was
only Rs 115,000. “This shows that we are not for profiteering. As a
workers’ cooperative, we give all the benefits to our workers, just like
in a authorities service,” states Sivaraman.

India's first tribal growers' organic coffee brand launched

BANGALORE:
India's first tribal growers' organic java trade name was launched in the Araku
Valley on Friday by Union curate of state for commercialism Jairam Ramesh. The
Araku Emerald trade name was derived from the lone java in Republic Of India to be grown by a
tribal co-operative and to have got received both an international and a Carnival Trade
certification. Some 4,000 tribals were present at the launch. The
Araku Emerald trade name will be ready for exportation soon after enfranchisement by
accredited agencies. It will vie with the best organic and Fair-Trade
certified javas in the world. The curate also inaugurated the Araku Coffee
Processing Unit Of Measurement near Vishakapatnam. The unit of measurement will supply quality processing
for 200 metric tons this season and 600 the next. The production of
Araku Emerald insurance premium organic java is portion of the Tribal Livelihoods
programme being facilitated by Naandi foundation in coaction with the
Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Paderu, the Coffee Board and
international experts in java quality-control and in biodynamic and organic
products. The curate hoped that this undertaking would, over the next
five years, benefit 50,000 little and edge husbandmen across 50,000 acres. Some
nine calendar months ago, Mister Ramesh had visited Araku Valley and suggested that this be
developed as one of India's prima organic-coffee producing tribal
co-operatives.

Kenya: Coffee Regulator Plans Aggressive Online Marketing - AllAfrica.com

Allan OdhiamboNairobi

Coffee manufacturers may soon have got further marketplace chances as industry regulator Coffee Board of Republic Of Kenya researches online connectivity to purchasers abroad.

In a conception dubbed e-marketing, CBK expects to set up linkages to forte markets, especially in the US, beginning February through the touching of a button. Some 80 processing mills have got enrolled to marketplace their green goods through the conception when it is inaugurated. The new scheme is supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the United States based Coffee Quality Institute (CQI).

"We are specifically targeting forte java where we shall have got samples tested locally by certified liquorors and marketed electronically abroad," CBK managing manager Loise Njeru said.

Analysts said the on-line strategy would supplement the current auction bridge and direct gross sales systems as agriculturists seek competitory pricing of their commodity. The old selling systems have got been faced with challenges prompting agriculturists to seek right from the State.

The weekly auction bridge have been dogged by claims of terms fixing among traders on the trading flooring - a development that have seen some husbandmen seek an option in the direct gross sales system to marketplaces abroad.

But this scheme have proved negativist to them because of numerous enlistments such as as a drawn-out clearance process before making cargoes out of the country. And with the planned startup of e-marketing, expectation is that it could pull a just share of agriculturists aiming to set down better fortunes. "I believe husbandmen and roasters will take advantage of the liberalization of java selling to construct profitable concern relationships," said Mrs Njeru.

As portion of attempts to research new markets, 100s of local liquorors have got been undergoing preparation based on criteria in the United States marketplace to ease the integrating of the supply chain. CQI have got developed A particular criteria manual and is currently coordinating the preparation programme of the liquorors.

"For the first time, we are put to fall in the planetary forte java industry by utilising the planetary forte criterion to guarantee husbandmen and roasters talk the same concern language," said Mrs Njeru .

The functionary said the preparation on a common criterion would give Republic Of Republic Of Kenya an advantage in cardinal international marketplaces in that it would get rid of cumbrous grading at assorted points of sale, besides ensuring husbandmen have a definite mention in footing of prices.

It would, however, be interesting to observe how those involved in the e-marketing concept would cover with the nothingness in statute law government electronic commerce.

Kenya have no statute law on e-commerce, a place that presents a drawback to enterprisers seeking to transport out fiscal minutes through the cyberspace because written documents generated and carried through this medium are not recognised as official.

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A Bill on Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) that sought to legalise e-commerce failed to see the visible light of twenty-four hours after Information curate Mutahi Kagwe hastily withdrew it to let for amendments to subdivisions stakeholders claimed were derogatory.

But as Republic Of Kenya prosecutes the way of forte coffee, analyst said accent must be accorded to proper farming to vouch insurance premium earnings. In this marketplace section pricing is strictly pegged on quality.

Luckily for the local growers, proper harvest farming is highly rated among reforms in the industry.

Coffee plantations should be tech driven: Jairam

BANGALORE: India’s
coffee-plantation sector should be technology-driven and not subsidy-driven,
Union curate of state for commercialism Jairam Ramesh said here on Tuesday. The
commerce ministry and Coffee Board were working in this direction, he said,
while addressing the 49th yearly conference of Mysore Planters Association
(KPA). Apart from the release this December after field trials of the
first java works assortment to be developed in 21 years, a Centre for
Biotechnology had been put up in Mysore to sequence the java genome. The objective, he said, was to guarantee that India’s coffee
plants could defy the sort of emphasis of drawn-out dry enchantments of up to 180
days, unlike in the world’s leading coffee- growing state of Federative Republic Of Brazil where
it rained every month. To fulfil this objective, the Coffee Board had been
networking with men of science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in
Bangalore and at the Meter Second Swaminathan Foundation in Chennai. The
Coffee Board was, he said, also working on an aim of making java less
Karnataka-centric â€"the state grew over 70% of India’s coffee. The
Coffee Board was planning to spread out cultivation to non-traditional areas. While
coffee was being cultivated for the last few old age in the north-east, it was now
proposed to put up a curing Centre in Mizoram and start cultivation in Nagaland. He noted that in the Naxalite-infested belt of Paderu in Andhra
Pradesh, some 60,000 tribal agriculturists were cultivating 4,000 metric tons of organic
coffee a year. Discussions had been held with companies like ITC to assist with
marketing. It was proposed to increase the figure of agriculturists to 120,000 in the
next five old age and dual the tunnage of production. This experimentation would also
be initiated in Orissa’s tribal belt of Koraput. Vis-a-vis the
social costs which, as of now, was being borne by the plantation owners under the
Plantation Labor Act, Mister Ramesh said he had held treatments with the
Panchayati Raj curate Mani Ravi Shankar Aiyar on how the outgo on creating or
improving the societal substructure like housing, schools, infirmaries could be
equitably shared. Stressing the demand to hike domestic consumption,
Mr Ramesh said he wanted the present premix of 80% exportations and 20% domestic to be
changed to 70:30 or 60:40. The Coffee Board had, he said, formulated an
objective of doubling domestic ingestion from the present degree of 80,000
tonnes by increasing the yearly offtake to the melody of 5,000 to 6,000 metric tons a
year. The Eleventh Plan spending on java had, he said, been increased
to Rs 750 crore from the One-Tenth Plan allotment of Rs 300 crore. A significant
portion of this would, he said, travel towards replantation. It was proposed to
replant 70,000 to 80,000 hectares over the adjacent seven to 10 years.