§ Mr. Harveyasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will give particulars of the arrangements made by the Ministry of Food for the purchase of the coffee crop in Kenya for the coming year; 1254W what increase per ton does the new price provide; and whether he will state the wages paid for African labour on the coffee estates, the approximate area of land on which coffee is grown by Africans on their own account and the area under European management.
§ Colonel StanleyThe Ministry of Food have agreed to purchase the 1944–45 coffee crop in Kenya at a final average price of £110 per ton, subject, however, to the submission, in due course, of balance sheets from representative estates to substantiate production costs on which this figure has been based. This price represents an increase of £11 10s. 0d. per ton on the total average price agreed for 1943–44. According to the figures of production costs which have already been submitted, the average monthly wages of labour in Kenya, including value of rations, amount to Sh. 22. The area of coffee estates under European management is approximately 82,000 acres. Experimental plantings by Africans, amounting to 402 acres in all, have been permitted under the Native-Grown Coffee rules, 1934, in the native reserves in the Nyanza Province, the Central Province and the Coast Province. The possibilities of extension to other areas has not been actively pursued during the war, owing to the need for maximum food production, but as a result of the experience gained from the experimental plantings so far made, the possibilities of developing the African coffee industry on co-operative lines are being considered.