Commodities
Six marketers barred from coffee auction get admission
Monday March 20 2023
A farmer tends to her coffee. FILE PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NMG
The six licensed marketers that were stopped from trading at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) will start trading at the auction end of this month.
The chairman of the National Coffee Cooperative Union Francis Ngone said the marketers are ready to be admitted after meeting all the requirements.
They are United Eastern Kenya Coffee Marketing Company, Meru County Coffee Marketing Agency Limited, Kipkelion Brokerage Company Limited, Mt Elgon Coffee Marketing Agency, Murang’a County Coffee Dealers Limited and Embu Coffee Farmers Marketing Agency Limited.
Read: CMA extends operations nod for coffee auction under old rules
“We shall be starting trading at the auction floor at the end of this month after meeting all the requirements for joining the Nairobi Coffee Exchange,” said Mr Ngone.
Mr Ngone made the remarks last week when officials from the six cooperative unions were taken through training in trading at the NCE.
NCE had indicated that it would admit the licensed brokers who had the Capital Markets Authority permits from last year.
The NCE said they have been working on modalities that will lead to the admission of the five brokers who had initially been denied access following clear instructions from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The move appears to end the supremacy battles between the CMA and the coffee regulator witnessed in the last two years as each of the parties claimed to have authority in regulating the sector.
Read: Coffee prices jump as trading resumes with high demand
The marketers, however, want the government to expedite the creation of the Direct Settlement System (DSS) to facilitate efficient trading.
The creation of the DSS was one of the reasons why the new coffee regulations did not take effect as planned in August 2020.
