Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has announced that Kenya’s coffee farmers could soon sell directly to US coffee chain Starbucks Corporation, in a landmark deal that would increase their incomes.
Rigathi says the government has talked with Starbucks Corporation about the US government-backed deal pushed 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.”
Further, he said that more than five million Kenyans depend on the industry, but they continue to suffer low incomes due to a dysfunctional system that appears to favor middlemen.
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“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,” he added.
Starbucks offers packaged and single-serve coffees and teas, beverage-related ingredients, and ready-to-drink beverages, as well as produces and sells bottled coffee drinks and a line of ice creams.
