ECOM / SMS

KENIAANSE KOFFIEBOEREN KLAAR VOOR INTERNATIONALE MARKT

Wie een kopje koffie bestelt, wil vooral dat het lekkere koffie is. Op de internationale markt worden echter meer eisen gesteld. Zijn de arbeidsomstandigheden op koffieplantages goed? Wordt er milieuvriendelijk geteeld? In Kenia krijgen kleinschalige koffieboeren met steun van Hivos en koffiehandelaar ECOM / SMS trainingen om aan die eisen te voldoen.

‘In veel ontwikkelingslanden zijn arme mensen op het platteland voor de verkoop van hun gewassen aangewezen op de nationale en internationale markt,’ vertelt Hivos-medewerker Coen van Beuningen. ‘Deze producten dienen te voldoen aan internationale kwaliteitseisen. Probleem is de toename van het aantal en de diversiteit van dit soort eisen – zeker bij voedselgewassen. Om die toename het hoofd te bieden, hebben grootschalige producenten fulltime kwaliteitsmanagers in dienst. Maar hun kleinschalige concurrenten kunnen zich dat niet permitteren. Zij verliezen daardoor marktaandeel. Hivos wil hen ondersteunen in de verbetering van hun concurrentiepositie.’

Hivos pakt het armoedeprobleem dus aan vanuit een marktbenadering. Van Beuningen: ‘In Kenia doen we dat samen met de internationale koffiehandelaar ECOM. Die kent de dynamische ontwikkelingen in de koffiemarkt. Veel aandacht gaat bij ECOM uit naar sociale en milieukwaliteit.’ De koffiehandelaar richtte in 2006 SMS op. In 2007 startte deze dochterorganisatie samen met Hivos een driejarig project, waarin 11.000 leden van vier koffiecoöperaties training krijgen.

SMS-medewerker Charles Nzioka legt die training uit. ‘De leden kozen 240 zogeheten promoter farmers. Elk van hen leeft in een groep van 45 boerenfamilies, geeft het goede voorbeeld en staat anderen bij tijdens het verbouwen van koffieplanten. Van het snoeien, mesten en oogsten tot het beschermen van de bodem en het controleren van gewassen op ziektes en plagen. Ze zorgen er ook voor dat families hun werkzaamheden zorgvuldig plannen en dat ze goede koffiebessen afleveren.’

Doel is dat de boeren erin slagen te voldoen aan kwaliteitsstandaarden. Dat houdt ook in dat ze als groep maatregelen nemen als er problemen optreden. ‘Want,’ zo stelt Nzioka, ‘alleen als zij hun krachten bundelen, kunnen zij hun marktaandeel handhaven en vergroten.’

OVER DEZE PARTNER (ENGELSTALIG)

Kenya coffee is in high demand on the world market due to its inherent superior quality. Consequently, premiums for these coffees have the potential to be high. The introduction of certification (eg. Starbucks, Fairtrade, CAFE practices, Rain Forest Alliance, Organic Coffee and Utz Kapeh) has the potential of adding further value to those premiums.

Most co-operative farmers are ill equiped to take full advantage of these new opportunities in the coffee business. Low production levels, usually 4 to 5 times lower than that of well managed coffee plantations in the same region, are unlikely to guarantee them any tangible benefit. Cooperative farmers lack knowledge on basic mangement and crop husbandry skills such as pruning, coffee handling, soil management, etc. and yet today's coffee trade demand that they comprehend issues such as cupping, intergrated pest management (IPM), transparent record keeping and a respect for economic, social and environmental responsibility.

To take advantage of the opportunities and address the weaknesses of smallholder cooperative farmers, Sustainable Management Services Ltd. (SMS) was established on 24 July 2006 by Ecom Agroindustrustrial Corp Ltd in Switzerland and Sangana Commodities Ltd. Kenya. SMS focuses on the provision of management services for smallholders and small/medium estates, creating sustainable and feasible farming units through "best practices". SMS offers coffee extension and advisory services on all aspects of coffee business, farm management services, training on best coffee practice, and coffee liquouring and quality training services, coffee sustainability and certification, risk management in coffee business, proposal writing and project managent on behalf of producers and provision of farm inputs and credit facilities to run the coffee business.

Achievement of the first phase, include 258 promoter farmers trained 11,687 farmers on good agricultural practices. Premium grades increased from 60 % to 82 %, target was 70 %. Coffee yield increased from 1 kg per tree to 3 kg per tree, leading to better income to coffee farmers in a rather stable market. Promoter farmers are in the process of transforming into demonstration farms. There is continual improvement of coffee processing efficiency as a result of training wet mill staff. Lastly, there is a better cohesion of cooperative society members.

Hivos supports SMS because it addresses one of Hivos major concerns in Sustainable Production, namely improving smallholders economic position by their inclusion in world quality markets.

Type organisatie

Service organization /profit

Werkveld

Sustainable Production

Land

Kenya

Opgericht

2006

Hivos partner sinds

2007

Website

Meer informatie

» | Over deze partner (Engelstalig)

» | Over door Hivos gesteunde projecten van deze partner (Engelstalig)

CONTACT

ECOM / SMS

» | http://www.ecomtrading.com/website.nsf/index?OpenPage

Nyeri Project Phase 2
DAC-sectors	Crop production Business and trade
Location	Kenya
Beneficiary	small farmers, fishers, pastoralists, forest dwellers
activity	functional QM systems 8 cooperatives
Direct outreach	8 - Policy level/ institutional
Indirect outreach	26687 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
activity	increase production high level farmers from 2.8 to 6 kg/tree
Direct outreach	258 - Intermediary level
Indirect outreach	11687 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
activity	increase production low lwvel farmers from 1 kg to 5 kg/tree
Direct outreach	280 - Intermediary level
Indirect outreach	15000 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
activity	train promoter farmers
Direct outreach	538 - Intermediary level
Indirect outreach	26687 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
Contract total	403.600
Contractperiod	01-01-2010 until 31-12-2012

Description

The second phase of the project aims to work with the 4 Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCSs) from the first phase, and expand to 5 new FCSs.

Increase of income is the first common objective to be achieved by improving quality and quantity of coffee. More income is expected to raise standard of living. Creating more transparency in decision making and provision of information in the 4 Societies is a second common objective.
Smallholder production maintains a higher level of employment in the Kenya coffee sector compared to the big coffee estates. The trend in the Kenya coffee sector is a decrease in smallholder production and an increase in the production of the big estates. So maintenance or creation of employment is a third common objective.
The 4 FCS are interested to develop a smallholder farming model which is attractive to the youth. The trend is that youth is leaving and that the average age of farmers is going up. Reversing this trend is a fourth objective.

Results and outcomes include income stabilization and increase, increase in premium grades, increase in average yields, enhancement of the performance of the promoter farmers and gender promoter farmers' training the farmers towards achieving the objectives and increase in number of young farmers.

SMS has proven that its approach contributes to a substantial income improvement at the level of smallholders, the cooperatives function better and are more transparent, whilst also addressing environmental and social sustainability concerns. With this project the promising results will be extended to 5 other FCS.