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by Ronald Njoroge
NAIROBI, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to gazette coffee regulations next month that will help to boost earnings from the sector.
Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Willy Bett told a media briefing on Thursday that once the regulations are operationalized, farmers will make more from sales of their crop.
"The overall aim of the regulations is to remove restrictions in the coffee value chain that have negatively impacted on the farmers earnings," Bett said after a meeting with coffee farmers, millers, cooperatives and marketing societies.
The East African nation plans to boost production of the sector that produced fewer than 50,000 tonnes of coffee in 2016 compared to the 130,000 tonnes in the late 1980s.
Bett said the new regulations would ensure coffee farmers be paid a certain percentage of payment as soon as they deliver their produce.
"Coffee farmers normally have to wait for up to eight months before they are paid and this makes it difficult for them to invest in expanding production," he said.
Other reforms will include the establishment of a Central Depository Unit that will receive all coffee payments. "Then the farmers, cooperatives, millers and marketers will be all paid from the funds," Bett said. Enditem
