Public Universities in Kenya are set to develop coffee shops in a bid to increase coffee consumption. Speaking during the official launch of Kenyatta University Coffee house Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said setting up coffee houses in public universities to promote domestic consumption of Kenyan coffee has been a dream for the ministry.
KU coffee house will be the 2nd coffee house in a public university after the ARC coffee house at Egerton University was opened recently. The CS said they have witnessed a milestone in the development of domestic market for Kenyan Coffee.
“The Coffee Directorate has now facilitated the establishment of two other coffee houses at private universities namely the United States International University- Africa (USIU), being managed by Nairobi Java Coffee House Ltd and the other at Strathmore University, managed by Rockbern Coffee Ltd”, Munya said.
Big Four Agenda
“The Ministry targets to open four more coffee houses in public universities within a period of four years. This will see the growth of consumption of Kenyan coffee from the current 3 per cent to 7 per cent by the end of the year 2025”, Munya added.
Coffee, he explained, is a strategic crop to the economy of this country. It is critical in the Government’s Big Four Agenda, as it supports the Manufacturing Pillar where it is critical in value addition. It is also instrumental in the Food Security Pillar.
The opening up of the coffee houses at the universities is being supported by the Inter African Coffee Organization (IACO) in partnership with International Coffee Organization (ICO) in coffee producing countries to address the issues of productivity improvement while also promoting domestic coffee consumption among its member states.
The Coffee Directorate received the grant for these activities from ICO through IACO and the total cost of the KU Coffee House was Sh 2,538,594.00 with a contribution of Sh1,563,610 from the IACO grant and an additional of Sh 974,984 by the Coffee Directorate.
