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{
    "id": 1526772,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1526772/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mutahi Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 229,
        "legal_name": "Mutahi Kagwe",
        "slug": "mutahi-kagwe"
    },
    "content": "On the issue of EPZ and the blending of tea, it is indeed true that countries across the world kind of protect what they have first to ensure that the local industry is not affected and people do not come and say that they are blending when as a matter of fact they want us to come and utilize it locally. So, I agree with him that it is necessary to do anything possible. If it means importing and then blending it, creating more jobs in our nation. Whether it is coffee or tea, if it means that we are importing and blending it here the way they do it, for example, at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), then it makes sense to us because again, we will be creating more job. We have done that before, with the teas from across the world to create specific teas for buyers overseas. We have imported teas to blend them here. We would like to blend them here as much as possible, not to blend them out there because the minute you blend them out there, you export jobs. If we blend them here, we create jobs. So, I would like to assure the Senator that, the TBK is looking at the entire policy framework because for me, the sing song is jobs, jobs, jobs! Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as long as we can create jobs and increase our exports, whatever needs to be done, we will proceed to do so. I wish to thank the hon. Senator for hosting both the coffee and tea auctions in Mombasa. That is where we are heading straight after this discussion in order to deal with some of those things. On the issue of macadamia, the hon. Senator raised the issue of the solution that lies in terms of the eliminating or getting rid of the current bulk. If I understand him correctly, the Senator was saying that the bulk and the oversupply that currently exists is as a result of us stopping the one that was leaving. As I said earlier, the best way is to engage together and we discussed this matter because there are two solutions to it. One solution is what the hon. Senator is proposing. The other solution is to ensure that the persons processing and since they are saying they have got 120,000 metric tonnes capacity to process and the market is wide open and there is demand, then, just like we did with the wheat farmers, they should just say that they are the processors and uptake everything we have at once. This is so that we do not have bulk oversupply that is creating a downward spiral in terms of the pricing. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, whether it is downwards or otherwise, the price set is a minimum of Kshs100. That is the price set, and that is the price agreed upon. Therefore, it is illegal for a processor to come and propose to buy at less than Kshs100. However, I suspect that what could be happening is that some middlemen could be buying from the farmer, suppressing the farmer’s price, and then going and getting their normal price at the processing. One of the reasons we want to engage the farmers directly is because of this issue. It would have been easy to deal with those issues if we had a farmers’ cooperative society or farmers Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) engaging directly with the nut association. We would have then said that nobody is going to pay less than the agreed amount, and we would like to get there. I urge the hon. Senators and those in leadership that the important thing is for us to help us to get these farmers together, so that they can benefit. There will be resistance because people in that business are not going to sit back and watch the farmers getting The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}