Inclusive Business Model Analysis: CMS, Kenya

Since 2006, Coffee Management Services Ltd (CMS) operates as a marketing agent in the Kenyan coffee value chain for +200,000 smallholder farmers.

Due to the competitiveness, CMS’s main objective is to retain their current market share of 30% (of the total Kenyan production). They aim to secure these large volumes of coffee, while simultaneously focusing on high-quality allowing them to tap into specialty markets and to pass on higher prices to farmers.

To achieve these goals, CMS collaborates with Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS) to provide a wide range of services to farmers: market access, dry milling, storage, training, inputs, finance and sustainability interventions (incl. certification, diversification, gender, climate change, landscape protection and food security interventions).

This study was undertaken as part of the Coffee Farmer Income Resilience Programme (CFIRP) and therefore has a particular focus on higher and more resilient coffee smallholder farm income through diversified farming systems and improved soil health.

This SDM analysis assesses the business case for CMS, the FCS, as well as for the smallholder coffee farmers from both a coffee- and a regenerative agriculture-focused perspective.