Assessing the Influence of Growth Strategies on the Performance of Coffee Marketing Cooperatives in Kirinyaga County, Kenya

Abstract

Cooperatives in Kirinyaga County are faced with high operational costs, and have not managed to pay farmers decently. Due to irregular prices on the market, and the export of coffee that is not branded lacking Kenyan identity has led to the poor performance of the cooperative sector in the world coffee market. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of growth strategies on coffee marketing cooperatives in Kirinyaga County. The study is founded on the Ansoff model (1965) that provides business analysis technique for identifying growth opportunities for a firm. The target population was 285 respondents from fourteen coffee marketing cooperatives. The sample size for the research was 166 respondents comprising of managers, assistant managers, factory managers and management committee member. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches and used descriptive survey and inferential statistics. The study found out that market penetration strategies had little or moderate or no influence on the performance of coffee marketing cooperatives whereas product development strategy influenced performance of coffee marketing cooperatives. The study recommends that  coffee marketing cooperatives should employ a variety of growth strategies such as market penetration and product development strategies in order to enhance their performance to increase their revenue stream to match competition and enhance their survival and progress. The study will benefit management committee members, stakeholders and Kirinyaga County policy to assist coffee marketing cooperative societies to enhance growth strategies to gain in world coffee market.