Kiganjo AB - Kenya

This AB lot was produced by numerous smallholder farmers, all of whom are members of the Thiririka Farmers Cooperative Society (FCS) delivering to Kigajo Coffee Factory (as washing stations/wet mills are called in Kenya). The factory is located near the town of Gatundu, in Kenya’s Kiambu County.

The Thiririka FCS was founded in 1995; today the cooperative operates 3 separate factories (Kiganjo, Githembe, & Ndundu). Around 2,400 members belong to the Cooperative and around 800 of these deliver to the Gitare factory. The FCS itself is named after the Thiririka River, one of the main bodies of water in the region.

The affiliate members of the co-op are required to be very diligent in using best practices to carry out all agronomic activities associated with coffee production, including sourcing coffee seeds from the Coffee Research Institute’s Coffee Research Station. Planting and cultivating is carried out according to the guidelines offered by the group leadership and technical advisors. Fieldwork carried out involves weeding, pruning, application of fertiliser, mulching and technical advice. Technical advice is offered through farmer training programs and field visits offered by the ministry of agriculture.

Best practices are checked and supervised by the field committee, who visit farms in the area and check that coffee is not intercropped with maize and beans, though they do allow intercropping with Macadamia. They also encourage farmers who have abandoned their coffee production to return to production and access better prices for their crops.

Kiganjo is well known for producing exceptionally high quality coffee. Processing at the wet mill adheres to stringent quality-driven methods. All coffee cherries are handpicked and are delivered to the mill the same day, where they undergo meticulous sorting. Factory employees oversee the process and any underripe or damaged cherries will not be accepted by the ‘Cherry Clerk’ – one of the most important harvest-period staff, who keeps meticulous records of how much coffee each producer delivers on any given day (and thus how much payment is due once the coffee has sold). Any rejected coffee will have to be taken home again, and the farmer will need to find a place to dry it (often a tarp in the yard) to be delivered only at the end of season as low quality ‘Mbuni’ – natural process coffee that earns a very low price. Thus, farmer members are incentivised to only pick and deliver the ripest cherry that they can.

After being weighed and logged, the weight of the delivery and the farmer’s identification are recorded in the Cherry Clerk’s register and the cherries are introduced into the hopper to be pulped. Pulping will only begin when a sufficient quantity of cherries has been received.

After pulping the cherries are delivered to one of the factory’s fermentation tanks, where it will ferment for between 12 to 48 hours depending on the ambient temperature at the time. After this, the coffee is fully washed in clean water pumped from the River Theta to remove all traces of mucilage, during which time it will be graded. The coffee will then either be delivered to dry on the factory’s raised drying beds or will be soaked under circulating water for up to 24 hours, depending on if there is room on the factory’s beds (during the peak of the season, there is often a backlog). The coffee will dry here slowly over the course of 2 to 3 weeks, during which time it will be turned regularly and covered during the hottest part of the day.

To ensure that processing is carried out efficiently, the factory has invested in a pulper, a water recirculation system and about 20 conditioning bins, which help condition the coffee and stablise moisture content.

Kiambu, being very close to Nairobi, has a long history with regards to coffee production. However, recent history and urbanisation pose many issues for the future of coffee production in the region. Some of the issues are the same that farmers across the country face, such as low production due to pests and diseases and the relatively high cost of inputs compared to income from coffee. Many cannot afford to plant disease resistant varieties and face being priced out of the market as their yields diminish.

The more pressing threat is arguably that of urbanisation and industrialisation. Kiambu County abuts directly up to the northern boundaries of Nairobi, encompassing wealthy suburbs and industrial areas alike in its southern edges. It may look as if Gatundu is far away from the capital, but as the expansion of the Thika Superhighway and other infrastructure projects advance, it becomes easier and easier to set up businesses (and homes) on the outskirts of Nairobi and along the routes to Ruiru and Thika, which lie quite close to Gatundu. The highway construction has already led to an explosion of the real estate market with several big projects under development, such as Tatu City, Thika Greens and Buffalo Hills complexes. Other modern housing developments include Bahati Ridges, Fourways Junction and Juja South schemes.

Such urban expansion has already eaten away at many of Kenya’s larger coffee plantations: many of the oldest and largest are now housing developments. The impact on small holder farmers – who currently live farther from the city’s bounds – remains to be seen. One thing is sure: continued investment in quality coffee such as this lot is one of the sure actions that will continue to give coffee in the region a ‘leg up’, hopefully preserving coffee in the area for many generations to come.

Screen sizing in Kenya

The AA, AB and other grades used to classify lots in Kenya are an indication of screen size only. They are not any indication of cup quality. The AA grade in Kenya is equivalent to screen size 17 or 18 (17/64 or 18/64 of an inch) used at other origins. AA grades often command higher prices at auction though this grade is no indication of cup quality and an AB lot from a better farm may cup better.