The Meru Coffee farmers have a reason to smile after the County Government announced a rise in coffee prices. Meru County Governor Hon Peter Munya said that the County is committed to helping farmers improve the quality of their products to attract a much higher pay. Following the formation of the Meru Central Coffee Milling Plant, the sector has recorded higher returns thereby attracting more dividends for the farmers. "In the endeavor to reclaim the past glory of coffee in Meru, and to stamp the authority as the forgotten foreign exchange earner for Kenya, Meru County Government supported the coffee farmers Unions initiative of having a central milling plant for their coffee," said Governor Munya.

"This initiative has paid dividends for it has reclaimed the past glory of coffee; brought improve earnings to farmers; made marketing of the crop easier; will assist in the branding of Meru coffee." He further noted that the Meru County Coffee Millers plant milled 86,000 kgs of coffee between January and May this year which has been sold to buyers in Switzerland and Germany fetching Ksh 19.4 million. This money has already been sent to the respective coffee societies for payment to the farmers with the lowest payment to the farmer is Ksh 40, and the highest is Ksh 65 per kg. This is in comparison to the earlier payments of between Ksh 21 and Ksh 27 per kg in the previous years. He added; "One of the Societies is paying members ksh 138 per Kg of Mbuni compared to previous payment of Ksh 72 per kg of Mbuni. Another is paying Ksh 97 per kg of Mbuni compared to previous payment of Ksh 45 per kg. "I hasten to report that the coffee payments we are announcing are for the deliveries made this year. Our competitors have not even paid for the previous years and are in debts." The crop the County Government is paying through the Meru Central Coffee Milling plant is from the low harvest of October to December. The next is the high harvest of April/June which is anticipated to be 16 million kgs and at the current rates will fetch about Ksh 1 billion.

He warned that cartels out to exploit farmers and those involved in coffee hawking will soon be dealt with mercilessly. Way forward The governor pointed out that the current statistics are positive indicators of milling and marketing initiative. The payment rates are encouraging to farmers who are urged to deliver their coffee to the Meru County Coffee Mills to continue earning even better prices. "The move taken to mill and market Meru coffee jointly is not well received by cartels that for many years have monopolized the value chain to the detriment of the coffee farmer. Coffee hawking and theft is a major challenge to this initiative as well. Farmers are therefore urged to desist from coffee hawking because besides being an illegal activity, it exposes the farmer to exploitation. It is obvious the low buying price offered by hawkers to farmers is far lower than what the farmer would be paid after milling and marketing the coffee through the County Mill," he said. "The Union members are advised to remain focused and firm in the coffee initiative. Cartels should not be allowed to arm twist farmers, instead, farmers should fight any attempt to derail them from their focus." To ensure prudent management and accountability in the cooperative sector, he said that the Meru County Government is coming up with programmes for capacity building, enhancing supervision and providing the requisite legal and regulatory framework (The Meru County Co-operative Societies Bill, 2014). "My government also intends to replicate this initiative to other sectors like bananas, fruits, potatoes and miraa.

In this respect, we wish to urge all producer groups to support our initiatives so that we uplift the social-economic status of our people through value addition." "I appeal to all producer groups to support the government in issues value addition in an endeavor to develop the county," appealed Munya.