House wants exploitative cooperatives closed

KIGALI - Senators have demanded that Abadahemuka Cooperative be shut down for allegedly exploiting farmers by monopolising the sale of agricultural produce. The legislators want all other cooperatives in districts that levy taxes on agricultural products to stop with immediate effect until the alleged exploitation has been investigated. The resolution follows a report detailing problems affecting trade in agricultural products by the Senatorial Commission on Economic Affairs. The report was tabled on Wednesday this week. Senator Spéciose Ayinkamiye, the chairperson of the Commission said that Abadahemuka cooperative and various intermediaries in the agricultural business have left the farmers’ cooperatives hapless. “Farmers’ cooperatives are not allowed to bring their own products to the market. The farmers have to go through such intermediaries which is very bad,” Ayinkamiye revealed. The report indicates that the cooperative in question has monopolized the buying and selling of the agriculture produce including Irish potatoes and bananas countrywide.Senate president, Dr Vincent Biruta, underscored the need to help farmers to improve their standards of living. The cooperatives set up roadblocks in Kayonza, Mulindi and Gitikinyoni near Nyabugogo purposely to collect taxes from other traders without permission from the authorities, the report reveals. Abadahemuka Cooperative started in 2006 and has over 857 members countrywide. Since its inception, the cooperative has been trading agricultural produce from all parts of the country. With 396 trading centres in Kigali city, the cooperative forces other dealers in Irish potatoes to first pay taxes before they are allowed to come to Kigali. Five tonnes of Irish potatoes for instance, have to be charged about Frw2500, senators say the cooperative has no powers to tax these produce. According to the report, the cooperative is accused of regulating market prices of these agricultural produce. “It determines the quantity of the products to be transported to Kigali markets and hence affecting their prices which must stop,” Senator Ayinkamiye added. The monopoly according to the report has led to other cooperatives like the farmers’ cooperatives and Cooperative of General Transport (COGETRA) to lose customers and end up selling their produce to their superior. Senator Aloysie Inyumba said that there was no need for intermediaries in the sale of agricultural produce as the case is today and proposed that these intermediaries be eliminated. “Intermediaries are the ones leading to the increase of prices of Irish potatoes and bananas in Kigali, yet our farmers are exploited,” Inyumba stressed. Price fixing Senators also demanded that the line ministry fix prices of these agricultural products to help farmers benefit from their sweat. Senators Agnes Kayijire and Rwigamba Barinda also argued that prices should be made public so that fluctuation of food prices are regulated and farmers not exploited. Apportioning blame Alphonse Gaturarwanda, a member of the Abadahemuka Cooperative, dismissed all the claims, saying his cooperative cannot exploit farmers. “We have not at any time charged those fees except from our members, and it is done at their own will,” Gaturarwanda said. “It is the local authorities who instead exploit us because they charge us over Frw100, 000 per 10 tonnes of Irish potatoes especially in Nyabihu District,” he added. Gaturarwanda also dismissed the allegations of roadblocks saying that his cooperative had not set up any as the report indicates. But a farmer in Kayonza District in the Eastern province told this reporter that the roadblocks were still active and were giving hard time to other traders in the agricultural products. “They even threaten us that if we do not sell our produce to them, they would import them from Uganda, which is very annoying,” said the farmer who did not want to reveal his names. Ends