There are no plans to give one company monopoly to buy and market Kenya’s coffee, says Cooperative Development minister Njeru Ndwiga. He said the marketing of coffee should remain competitive to ensure the farmers get the best price for their produce. The Coffee Board of Kenya had reportedly approved a proposal by Tetu Coffee Incorporated to grant it a 10-year monopoly to buy Kenya’s coffee from selected cooperatives and market 60 percent of it in the US. The Kenyan company based in the US had claimed that through single sourcing, the 30,000 metric tonnes it would market would fetch 49 billion shillings annually. Agriculture minister Kipruto Kirwa and his cooperative counterpart Njeru Ndwiga welcomed the idea but said the firm had not been given the green light. Ndwiga however said the government was negotiating with a total of 12 firms, six in the US, three from Europe and three from the Middle East and Asia with similar proposals. Problems rocking the coffee industry have resulted in the plummeting of production from 140,000 metric tonnes to 50,000 metric tonnes.