A project within the framework of the Sustainable Livelihoods initiative of the Mountain Partnership is helping to generate income and stabilise the livelihoods of Kenyan coffee farmers. Dean's Beans Organic Coffee Company, a member of the Mountain Partnership, will work to develop organic coffee production with small-scale farmers in the highlands of Kenya and provide a high-end market in the U.S. for the growers. Fair trade practices will be used to ensure a good price for the growers who, through this pilot project involving the Kenyan Government, will be able to bypass the normal state controlled auction system and sell their product directly to importers like Dean's Beans. Fair trade practices guarantee 60% advance payment of the cost of production, making a considerable difference to the financial risks involved at household and community levels. And moving to organic farming means eliminating some of the dangerous pesticides used in Kenya and many other developing countries. “Organic coffee still represents a very small percentage of the country's overall production”, says Justus Kiago of the Kenyan Ministry of Cooperative Development and Marketing. “It could definitely offer protection against crashes in world prices and help smallholders to differentiate their production and find niche markets.”
Although this recently launched project is small in scale—the fair trade label still only accounting for a small share of the global market—the project could provide valuable lessons and an important model for other regions.
