Archive for » March, 2008 «

Mar

Nairobi – “Energy is one of the main costs for coffee growers,” said in an interview Zack Nakunju, president of the Kenya Coffee Growers Association. Coffee farmers rely on gasoline to transport raw coffee beans to processors and diesel to power farm equipment, noted Nakunju, who owns a 120-acre coffee plantation in central Kenya.Farmers “have no control over rising energy prices — we are on the receiving end. We are not changing, but farming coffee is uneconomical right now.”Hopefully, he said, relief will come soon as farmers sell their coffee at local coffee auctions or now, thanks to a change made this year, directly overseas.“We will continue to farm, but we will be asking for higher prices.”

Oil prices have had a similar effect on the even bigger tea industry.

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