What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

A year has just passed since the coffee reforms commenced. At this juncture, I must say that it is not the first time we have witnessed coffee reforms in Kenya. Reforms are almost daily business in the coffee sector. Every day the players, especially the farmers, are agitating for change. I hope that at the end of the day, we will witness a robust sector that is self-driven without necessarily relying on the government for waivers, subsidies, changes etc.

For the first time, we have seen coffee farmers legally (it has happened before unlawfully ending up with some arrests and bookings to Kamukunji police station) get onto the coffee auction podium and sell their coffee.

The reforms this year have led to a lot of suffering for the farmers due to delays in the milling and selling of coffee. It is long since we got to May without the final payout to the farmer. This has happened because last year, the coffee auction was inactive for about five months, waiting for directions due to the anticipated reforms.

We have also learnt that a single mill or two are not enough for the coffee that we produce. Though the milling capacity is much higher than our production, most farmers want their coffee milled and sold between January and mid-March.

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