Origin sourcing: The best bet to lift local coffee farmers

Despite Kenya growing some of the best coffee in the world, many Kenyans do not consume the beverage. 

For many, coffee is introduced at a later stage in life. Even for producers, coffee was considered an export commodity. 

Kiminini MP Maurice Bisau Kakai, while acknowledging he acquired his taste for coffee after travelling abroad, has become a big advocate of raising local consumption of coffee.  

He notes that value addition alone is not enough; the country needs to aggressively market it and consolidate the product. 

Kenya’s coffee fetches premium rates on international markets; however, at the source, women carry the bulk of the groundwork. 

Despite this, decisions, conversations and buying and selling are usually done abroad in foreign countries that have no relation to the source.

According to the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kenya earned $297 million (Sh43.5 billion) from coffee exports to 59 countries in 2025 alone. According to Salome Bisau, co-founder of the Kenya Coffee Hub International Convention, despite fetching premium prices, Kenya’s coffee marketing aspect has lost. 

“By the time the cup reaches the final user, most people don’t know that it comes from Kenya. They know that it’s Starbucks or any other large company, but the name Kenya itself is lost,” Salome said. 

In the trade of coffee, the origin is often obscured by international brands, leaving farmers disconnected from end buyers and capturing limited value.  As such, the Kenya Coffee Hub International Convention has been launched, an origin-based coffee trade convention, a first of its kind, and will connect international buyers directly with producers at source. 

According to Joshua Tiampati, co-founder of Kenya Coffee Hub, the coffee sector has tariffs not written on paper.  Education and awareness have been identified as a critical gap in the coffee sector.  

“Many people think that the reason why they are not exporting coffee out of the country is because that is reserved for cartels. The reality is, there are certain standards, certain measures that have been put in place by foreign markets to regulate the kind of coffee they take in,” Tiampati said. 

International buyers

Suleiman Akolo, event coordinator at Spring Valley Coffee, said the firm is trying to change the coffee-drinking culture by introducing specialty coffee locally. 

“Abroad people enjoy Kenyan coffees. But now, why don’t we Kenyans try to enjoy our coffees? Hence the specialty coffee idea,” he said, adding that a coffee convention as a source is critical for brand building. According to Akolo, coffee in Kenya is expensive when compared to other beverages, a factor that influences consumption. 

Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) president Erick Rutto noted that Kenya lacks origin trade conventions.  “International buyers are willing to pay a premium of upto 30 to 50 per cent when they experience the quality of coffee at origin rather than from a shipped sample,” Rutto said.  “For the first time, we have a framework that brings verified international buyers, importers, roasters, and retailers to Nairobi, specifically to source, specifically at origin.”

He added that the convention is a structural correction to the way the global coffee trade has operated for decades.  Furthermore, the chamber projects that an annual convention of international buyers will generate economic spillover across hospitality, transport, logistics, finance, and services – sectors the auction alone does not activate. 

The convention will also remove the need for international travel, visas, and expensive trade fair participation, enabling smaller cooperatives to showcase their coffees locally, at a manageable cost, to verified international buyers with active sourcing budgets. 

Coffee is a major foreign exchange earner for Kenya’s exchequer; however, the Kenyan farmers have continued to be exploited, with the trade often infiltrated by cartels. 

Kiminini member of parliament Bisau Kakai notes that in the past coffee farmers have had to cut down the bushes due to exploitation.  Trans-Nzoia has traditionally been the country’s granary, planting maize year on year, in the recent past, farmers in the region have been moving towards farming avocados, coffee, sugarcane and flowers, among other produce. 

Kiminini MP Bisau noted the diversification to export produce is due to the availability of a ready market and middlemen. 

“Coffee has been infiltrated by middlemen, but we could reach the level of ease of doing business if incentives are put in place,” Bisau said. 

Physical attention

Despite fetching premium prices, Gitau Karanja, the general manager of Karunguru Coffee Estate, notes that coffee farming and business are not easy trades to venture into. 

“A coffee tree is like a child. You always have to nurture that tree; if you miss any process, that same tree can refuse to give you a crop for the next season,” Karanja said, adding that coffee farming requires physical attention. 

He noted that accessing international markets is especially difficult for most farmers due to lack of support. “We are trying to enter what we call the Specialty Coffee Market and position ourselves as the best quality producers,” he said. 

“Kenyan farmers, the issues we do have are pricing of our coffee. And also, people out there understand what we go through to ensure that the world gets this produce.” Karunguru coffee estate sits on 204 acres of land. Karanja has also blamed the lack of knowledge for the low consumption of coffee.He reckons that price volatility at the auction is also a challenge coffee farmers face.

“Every season the price of coffee is different. At one point, the price might be high, which, as farmers, we are very happy about. But at some point, then the prices shoot down,” Karanja said.

 He adds, there is need for price consistency to allow Kenyan farmers to hedge their prices, and also budget for every other season.