KENYAN FARMERS SEE RISE IN EARNINGS
16.11.2010 - Kenyan farmers under the Fairtrade umbrella expect their premiums to triple this season from last years' pay-out of Sh460 million (ZAR40 million). With 53 producer members, Kenya is one of the largest Fairtrade producing countries in Africa, supplying everything from tea, flowers, nuts, vegetables and coffee. The flower sector is the main Fairtrade Premium earner, with more than Sh300 million received in 2008 alone (ZAR26 million).
(©BusinessDailyAfrica.com)
According to the report from Business Daily Africa, common projects financed using the premiums paid to producer organisations have been building schools, despensaries, social centres, conducting family seminars and HIV/Aids awareness programmes.
Ndumberi Coffee Cooperative in the Kiambu County received Sh960.000 (ZAR 83.000) last year, which it has used to distribute clean water in staff houses, provide drugs for the staff dispensary and build three modern toilets. In the previous years, it used the funds to improve the road network to ease access to the factory. Raymond Gitau, the chair of the board of directors, said the membership to Fairtrade has helped them to have more direct access to international markets, which has reduced the long chain of middle-men, resulting in better prices for the small farmers.
(©Fairtrade Label South Africa)
