zlacker

>>sebg+(OP)
I wonder what the long term solutions to these kinds of problems are in East Africa and similar contexts.

The remnants of colonialism continue to produce winners and losers economically, with the winners stuck in local maxima where they extract value from the people, but the people themselves see only marginal benefit, and development is stuck at a snail's pace.

As with seemingly everything in life, the incentives for the different players really don't line up. Consumers lose, producers lose, and only a select few middlemen win anything at all.

>>noodle+G5
While it's true that these systems are a holdover from colonialism, it's also true that Kenya has been an independent country for over 50 years with sovereignty and agency over internal affairs like how the coffee market works. I feel at some point the blame needs to be shifted accordingly.

>>return+sv
> with sovereignty and agency over internal affairs like how the coffee market works

Kenya had sovereignty in production, but not in capital - which is what was needed to climb up the value chain.

Historically, Kenya's largest capital market has been the UK, and as such Kenya's administration was unable to break the oligopoly of coffee purchasers who were British-Kenyan dual nationals and descendants of British settlers.

The same kind of land reforms that former colonies like Indonesia, Vietnam, India, etc were able to drive did not happen in Kenya.

Now corporations from those former colonies are gobbling up land and production in Kenya and other African nations, but domestic African (excluding South Africa) continue to remain on the back foot.