Q: What are the Coffee Board of Kenya and the other stakeholders in the industry doing to make Kenyan coffee even more popular around the world?
A: The main issues at the moment in marketing Kenyan coffee around the world revolve around value addition, quality assurance, packaging and branding. At the moment, Kenya is selling most of its coffee abroad as a commodity rather than a brand. Apart from drying and roasting there is little value addition in the coffee exported abroad from Kenya. We are shifting focus and looking at various ways to add value and sell pure, high quality Kenyan coffee abroad as a distinctive brand. Our neighbour, Ethiopia, is already branding its coffee but we are fast catching up with them.
Q: Which are the most important international markets for Kenyan coffee and what are the current trends in those countries?
A: The most important markets for Kenyan coffee at the moment are the Federal Republic of Germany, which imports around 30%, followed by the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) with around 25% to 30% and the United States of America at 20%. There are other emerging markets, especially in Asia, with China, Japan, India and Iran coming up strongly. Others are Russia and the Middle East. Unfortunately, in the Arab countries, most people prefer the strong, low quality coffee of the Robusta type.
Q: When was the Coffee Board of Kenya established, what are its functions and how does it fulfill that mandate?
A: The Coffee Board of Kenya was established in 1935 for the purposes of regulation, research, marketing and development of the coffee industry in the country. Since its establishment, the CBK has evolved considerably and emerged rightfully as a key player within the Kenyan coffee industry. In 2002, there was a major restructuring that not only liberalized the industry, but also delinked the marketing function from the Board. The liberalization of the coffee industry had some serious financial implications for the Board, which is currently allowed by law to charge only a 1% levy on the marketed coffee. This has necessitated some restructuring and downsizing of operations in certain non-essential areas. Regulation, research and development remain the core functions of the Coffee Board of Kenya. Research is conducted through the Coffee Research Foundation at Ruiru on the northern outskirts of Nairobi.
Q: What are the top accomplishments of the Coffee Board of Kenya and what challenges now face the Board and the coffee industry in general as it faces the future?
A: The CBK, through the Coffee Research Foundation, has developed several valuable varieties of coffee, which include the famous Ruiru 11. The other main commercial varieties are SL28 and SL34. The Blue Mountain variety is mainly grown in the Kisii highlands of western Kenya. We have managed to maintain the high quality of Kenyan coffee, although there have been declines in production volumes. Prices on the world market still fluctuate widely, depending on production and consumption elsewhere in the world. We still have challenges with productivity among smallholder coffee growers and diseases such as Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) and Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR). Low productivity, especially among smallholder coffee growers due to various factors such as poor farming and management techniques, increased soil acidity and climatic vagaries, still pose a major challenge to our coffee industry. For the CBK, the main challenge is how to maintain relevance and growth within a liberalized regime and within a smaller budget. Despite all these challenges, I see the future of the industry in Kenya as very bright; especially if we can produce and market high quality processed, packaged and branded coffee.
