Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Mithika Linturi, heaped blame on his predecessor, Peter Munya, claiming that the former CS messed up Kenya’s coffee export market in South Korea.
While addressing Kenyans in South Korea on Tuesday, November 22, Linturi indicated that the Asian market was not fully exploited despite being an affordable market for Kenyan coffee.
“My predecessor somehow messed up the export market for coffee here in Korea,” Linturi alleged.
The former CS, he added, did not provide the necessary support to coffee farmers from Meru county when an opportunity to increase Kenya’s coffee export to South Korea emerged.
He added that an alleged agreement between the South Koreans and Meru Cooperative Union members allowed the direct export of coffee from Kenya to South Korea.
“But the necessary instruments and requirements that were supposed to been done were not done,” the CS argued.
However, Linturi affirmed that his ministry was ready to fast-track the necessary process to ratify the agreement.
He also pledged to ensure that Kenya’s coffee is sold in South Korea to allow the expatriates to enjoy one of the best beverages in the world.
“Secondly, we will be able to get better prices for coffee for our farmers that are doing it in Kenya,” the CS concluded.
Mithika Linturi accompanied President William Ruto to South Korea along with CSs Alfred Mutua (Foreign Affairs), Moses Kuria (Trade) and Eliud Owalo (ICT).
On his part, the Head of State indicated that Kenya will focus on value addition to export value-added products.
“We must move from processing 5 per cent of our tea to 50 per cent in the next five years and in 10 years we should be able to process every gram of tea grown in Kenya,” the President indicated.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE