Gititu AA
This AA lot was produced by numerous smallholder farmers, all of whom are members of the Gititu Farmers Cooperative Society (FCS) delivering to Gititu Coffee Factory (as washing stations/wet mills are called in Kenya). The factory is located near the town of Gitunduri, in Kenya’s Kiambu County.
Gititu means, itself, ‘big forest’ in Kikuyu, one of the native languages of the region, though these days there is not a great deal of unbroken forest in this part of Kenya, whose hills are populated by numerous smallholder farmers and their families. Farmers such as these form the backbone of Kenya’s coffee industry, producing more than 60% of the country’s coffee.
- Farm Gititu Factory
- Varietal Batian, Ruiru 11, SL28, SL34
- Process Fully washed
- Altitude 1,750 metres above sea level
- Town / City Gitunduri
- Region Kiambu County
- Owner 1,000 smallholder producers
- Tasting Notes Vanilla, berries, white grapes
- Farm Size 920 hectares in total / less than 1 hectare on average
Despite its proximity to the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia, coffee growing was introduced in Kenya relatively late – by Scottish missionaries, initially, and then commercially around 1900. Despite the late start, today, it is a country renowned for having some of the best coffees in the world. Nonetheless, Kenya’s coffee sector faces challenges for the future, and low global prices combined with climate change and population growth have diminished the country’s output over the last decade.