The Coffee Cherry Advance Revolving Fund (CCARF) is a Government of Kenya initiative — administered by New KPCU — that provides affordable, sustainable and accessible cherry advances to smallholder coffee growers and estates. It solves the long-standing problem of delayed payments, giving farmers working capital the moment they deliver their coffee, rather than waiting months for the crop to be sold.
Key service facts
3%
Administration fee — the advance is interest-free
Ksh 40
Per kg of cherry for cooperative members
5 days
Disbursement after approval
Ksh 7B
Total fund (Ksh 3B + Ksh 4B enhancement)
Who qualifies
The journey runs from application at the society level, through evaluation and dual approval, to disbursement directly to the farmer's preferred payment point — then recovery from coffee sale proceeds, which keeps the fund revolving for the next season.
Figure 6.1 — Cherry Advance: Application to Recovery Cycle
To qualify for a cherry advance, an applicant must be a Kenyan citizen, be a registered smallholder coffee grower or estate farmer with an active and verifiable grower code, and belong to a registered cooperative society (or, for estates, be affiliated to New KPCU through a signed milling and/or marketing agreement). A smallholder grower farms not more than twenty acres of coffee; a smallholder estate is a county-licensed grower with between two-and-a-half and twenty acres, or up to 20,000 kg of cherry.
From application to advance
Disbursement rates
All disbursements require dual sign-off authorisation by the Fund Administrator and Director Finance & Accounts, are tracked on a centralised digital system, and are capped in line with each farmer's expected production levels. The delivered coffee is tagged as collateral on the cherry fund platform for recovery by the Direct Settlement System (DSS).
| Applicant | Rate | Payment & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Cooperative society members (FCS) | Ksh 40 per kg of cherry | Paid to preferred point (Bank, Sacco, Mpesa) within 5 working days of approval |
| Smallholder estates | Ksh 200 per kg parchment; Ksh 100 per kg mbuni/naturals | Paid to preferred point within 5 working days; rate may be revised with market dynamics |
Recovery & keeping the fund revolving
Recovery is primarily through direct deductions from coffee sale proceeds. At the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, the DSS recovers the advance as a first charge after service-provider fees; for direct sales, growers present their CCARF commitments to AFA before export documents are issued. Where direct deduction is not feasible, structured repayment plans are developed around harvest cycles. A grace period of two coffee years applies before an account is deemed in default, during which staged demand notices are issued. Recovered funds flow back into the Fund — sustaining it for the next farmer, season after season.