Kenyan coffee farmers on Friday urged the government to release its stranglehold on the industry and so stop growers destroying their crops.
"We are uprooting our coffee because it does not pay," Moses Mbugua, a farmer, told a charged industry meeting called by Agriculture Minister Kipruto Kirwa to try to map out a strategy to revive the ailing sector.
Farmers want the government to abolish a raft of taxes on coffee and, more importantly, allow growers to sell directly to buyers overseas.
Currently the law requires farmers to sell through the central auction in Nairobi.
"The problem is coffee is still very controlled, very regulated. We have a problem of over-regulation," said Julius Mimano, chairman of the Kenya Coffee Growers and Employers Association.
"We should address the problem of liberalisation, the coffee belongs to the farmer and he should be allowed to do whatever he wants with it," Mimano said.
The industry's woes have been thrown into sharp focus by the decision of leading producer Kakuzi to uproot its coffee bushes and move into commercial flower growing.
Concerns raised by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and top German buyers who were visiting Kenya this week over the declining coffee industry have inflamed the debate.
Germany is the leading importer of Kenya's coffee.
Kenya's coffee production has fallen sharply from 129,000 tonnes in 1997/98 (Oct-Sept) to 48,000 in 2002/03, Kirwa said.
Crop quality has also been in decline.
The government blames mismanagement of the smallholder co-operative sector and weak global prices for the decline. But analysts say the government has not done enough to ensure farmers receive a fair return for their crop.
Farmers have heavy bank debts and much of what they earn from coffee goes to service interest on loans that were mismanaged by co-operative society leaders, analysts say.
"A starting point is the removal of the debt from the farmers' shoulder," said Gedion Muriuki, managing director of Co-operative Bank.
Farmers have asked the government to talk to donors to help write off debt estimated at 10.5 billion shillings ($137.2 million).
Kirwa said the government would give the farmers more say, but that he could not take a decision without consulting the cabinet.