I think cooperative mismanagement are to blame. If you visit Uganda - everywhere you'll see coffee beans being dried.
Coffee production in 1991 - in uganda was barely 5,000 tons.
Now as we speak - I think it's 300,000 tons.
The trick -The Uganda Coffee Development Authority was formed in 1991 by government decree, in line with the liberalization of the coffee industry.
Now move to kenya - I think in 1991 - it was 150,000 tonnes.
Now it barely 50,000 tonnes
If we had kept growing it like tea production - our coffee production would be a million plus tonnes
We would be like Veitnam
( Coffee production of Viet Nam increased from 7,300 tonnes in 1970 to 1.68 million tonnes in 2019)Something radically need to be done here. Gov has to not only recover production to 150,000 tonnes but aim for a million tonnes - by replacing useless maize with lots of coffee production.
The world population is increasing, urbanizing and globalizing - coffee consumption will increase.
This low hanging fruit. Gov should do something different with coffee sector. Borrow from Uganda.Cost of producing Arabica coffee is higher which is what Kenya produces vs Robusta which is what Uganda produces. Ugandans can produce robusta coffee cheaply and make decent returns. Uganda coffee production exploded as a result while Kenya production contracted after the cooperative societies management collapsed. Most of small coffee holders have neglected their coffee though most of them haven't uprooted the trees. Since the trees are there, all that's needed is to improve husbandry( like before) and production would be back up. The good thing is that with Brazil production being greatly diminished by drought and frost, next year prices are going to be very good. Something similar to the 70s coffee boom, this will entice farmers to go back to coffee farming.