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Coffee buying portal to cut out middlemen [Business Daily (Kenya)](Business Daily (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Coffee roasters from European markets will start buying beans directly from Kenyan producers through a new Web portal, cutting out the middlemen. The system on pilot at the Othaya Coffee Cooperative Society in Nyeri County will eliminate middlemen such as marketers and dealers, allowing more income to trickle down to farmers. "Coffee will leave Nyeri going directly to the buyer," said Michael Mungai, the training and capacity building manager at the Kenya Cooperative Coffee Exporters (KCCE), a company formed by smallholder farmers through their cooperatives to market coffee. Coffee from various cooperatives will be available on the Full Container Load Coffee portal, allowing international buyers and roasters to make direct orders for samples and buying the produce online. 60 tonnes sold Already, 60 tonnes of green coffee beans has been sold through the portal in three full container loads to a Danish roaster, Peter Larsen Kaffe. The system is being developed by Just Fair, a Danish electronic service provider specialised in business management software and product traceability. Coffee bought through the system is packed in full container loads to ease transport logistics for buyers. Buyers will also receive the traceability reports directly from the farmers instead of relying on marketers or millers, detailing information on the ordered coffee. Farmers will log in details such as weather conditions, soil types, plant population, estimated harvests, picking duration and quantities. The traceability software will allow farmers to log in details through their mobile phones. "Since this information will be typed into the system by farmers, we are developing a special application for mobile phones because most farmers in Kenya do not have access to computers," said Jonas Brunsnaes, the IT project coordinator at Just Fair. Mr Brunsnaes said farmers will also be trained on how to use the traceability mobile phone application which is expected to be up and running from the next coffee season. The traceability reports will also include milling process details such as receiving, drying, cupping, threshing and dispatch. Mr Brunsnaes said the project is targeting 13,000 farmers in Nicaragua in coffee, cocoa and honey production. In order to guarantee buyers constant supply, Just Fair is training farmers on best practices for the next two years to boost volumes and quality, a function that was previously done by marketers. "Buyers want to make sure they will get the coffee next year and the year after that, so we have to make sure we produce enough volumes," said Mr Brunsnaes. Just Fair has been marketing it to major European buyers and roasters. "We are making sure that roasters and buyers in Europe use this portal to buy coffee directly from producers and not through middlemen," said Mr Brunsnaes. (c) 2014 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |