Project title: ARABIKA – Action to Relaunch Agriculture and Branding Internationalization of Kenyan Coffee, in and out of Africa
Funded by: Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS)
Lead agency: CEFA – European Committe for Training and Agriculture
Country: Kenya
Overall term: 2021 to 2025
Assignments: Project evaluation
Coffee is grown in 33 Counties in Kenya with over 100 thousand hectares under coffee production and estimated five million Kenyans involved in the country’s coffee industry (30% of Kenya’s agricultural labour force) of which over 800,000 growers.1 The coffee sector has been one of the key pillars of Kenya’s economic development for decades. The country produces some of the best coffee in the world. However, production has slipped by 40% since the 1980s. Kenyan smallholder coffee farmers only produce 2 to 3 kilograms of cherry per tree on average, which is below inherent potential.
Drawing from the collaboration between the Government of Kenya and the Government of Italy, in July 2021 the consortium of Italian INGOs CEFA Onlus, AVSI Foundation, and E4Impact Foundation led by CEFA, launched the ARABIKA Project – Action to Relaunch Agriculture and Branding Internationalization of Kenyan Coffee, in and out of Africa, with funding from the AICS – Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. With a duration of 3 years and a total budget of 3 million euros, the project targets 21 cooperatives with 30,000 associated coffee farmers in Meru, Embu, Nyeri, Muranga, Machakos, Kiambu and Bungoma counties of Kenya witht the goal of improving the income of small coffee producers, increasing the participation of women and young people in the value chain, and relaunch the Kenyan Coffee brand on international markets.
The ARABIKA project has contracted us to conduct the external evaluation of the project.
