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Until this point, the various planters’ unions and then the Cof-
fee Board of Kenya had focused their efforts on gaining control over
processing and curing coffee. So far left out of these movements was
the gaining of genuine control over the marketing of Kenyan coffee.
The auction was thus borne from the impetus of Kenyan farmers
who wanted to gain control over the marketing of their coffee.
The first auction was established in 1931 but did not overthrow
the prominence of the London traders. Several other auctions fol-
lowed to varying degrees of success until in 1937, when the Nairobi
Coffee Exchange was opened to widespread support. In addition, a
nationwide standard in grading was developed in 1938. This became
controlled by the KPCU.

THE RISE OF THE COFFEE SMALLHOLDER

Land ownership rights will always determine how a coffee
accomplish what so many cooperatives in other sector is structured. With Kenya’s colonial history, early coffee
origins fail to do: provide services and dissemi- production was represented and controlled by colonial land owners.
nate information that help farmers grow great In 1946, the government (still colonial) began to open rules for who
coffee which in turn attracts buyers willing to could grow crops where and actively began encouraging indigenous
pay good prices. Kenyan coffee cooperatives are Kenyans to grow cash crops, including coffee.
in fact so successful, that some of the highest Then in 1954, a local chief got coffee seedlings from a Euro-
quality lots in the world come from them: AA pean friend and began to plant on his farm. While he was initially
and AB lots produced by cooperative factories subject to criminal proceedings, the growing independence move-
are consistently the most expensive commer- ment (“Mau-Mau rebellion”) aided the chief in having his case suc-
cially traded coffees in the world. cessfully dropped. Once the rebellion ended, the Director of Agri-
To understand how and why coops became culture removed restrictions previously allowing for only large
so strong, let’s go back to the beginnings of how plantations to grow coffee. The smallholder revolution had begun.
Kenyan coffee was traded.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KENYAN
COFFEE AUCTION

In the beginning (pre-Depression era),
coffee was sold by London traders who took
up to six months after the coffee was shipped
before paying the farmers. Farmers had to rely
on banks to finance them during this period,
as well as pay for shipment costs. Further de-
pleting their returns was the fact that coffee
was initially dry milled in London, rather than
in-country.
By 1926, the Coffee Planters’ Union was
established with the aim of helping producers
both make better coffee and more money from
it. The 1930s was a time of rapid changes
within the Kenyan coffee industry with various
groups trying different kinds of cooperative
and marketing systems, with the result that the
Planters’ Union began splitting into smaller
cooperative societies. The Thika Planter’s
Cooperative Union became the largest and
most dominant of these factions, which even-
tually was replaced by the Coffee Board of
Kenya (KPCU), due to political lobbying from
farmers and traders.

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