Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has yet again revealed a new plan of locking out brokers in the coffee sector through a deal with a US firm.
The Deputy President noted that the significant steps in locking out brokers followed a successful round of talks between the coffee chain Starbucks Corporation and the Kenya government.
According to the Second in Command, the talks were midwives by American Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman.
“Ambassador Meg Whitman has planned coffee buyers in America called Starbucks to meet with the President so that they can be buying our coffee directly,” he said.
“The Americans love our coffee. We have told them that what they are getting is the blended version. We have invited them to come and take our coffee in its original form and I am confident that they will be buying our coffee forever,” Gachagua stated.
In the deal, Gachagua noted that the American firm would buy coffee at a higher price compared to the broker’s controlled market.
The success of the deal would further be enabled following the allocation of Ksh4 billion by the Cabinet to revive the sector.
“The people who buy our coffee is not the Americans, it is bought by one European nation and then they sell it but they have do not even have a single coffee plant. They are just brokers now we want to remove them,” the DP stated.
