About This Coffee
This lot is cultivated on several small estates in Komothai, Kiambu. The estate owners are working together in a growers group called “Ngewa-Komothai Farmers.” The group consists of around 60 smallholder farmers who process their own harvests and whose lots are then blended together as dried parchment at Kahawa Bora Millers in Thika, Kenya.
This practice of blending lots from small estates was an invention of Sucafina Kenya. Many quality-focused small estate owners did not produce enough parchment to meet minimum size requirements at dry mills. This frequently meant that small estate owners ended up selling their parchment to agents who blended their coffee with many other lots where they often lost traceability. To help small estate owners reach minimums, maintain traceability and ensure that blended lots uphold the quality of each contribution, Sucafina Kenya helped facilitate grower groups that could connect small estate owners with others who were nearby and maintained similar quality standards and profiles.
These grower groups are more fluid than cooperatives. While the exact number of growers involved often changes from year to year, the principle remains the same. Grower groups help facilitate small estate owners’ access to more traceable dry milling and marketing solutions and frequently mean better quality and higher prices for their coffees.
Cultivation
Located at the foothills of the Gatamaiyo Forest Reserve, the area is also known for its tea growers, and is also home of the Kenyan Coffee Research Foundation. Kiambu County and the Ngewa-Komothai area is well known for its dairy production and is the largest dairy-producing county in Kenya. Many of the growers are adhering to organic fertilizing practices, using only cow manure instead of agrochemicals on their coffee trees.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Each small estate manages its own harvest and processing. In the case of these producer groups, the processing was done on a smaller scale than at the traditional larger factories.
The producers of the Ngewa-Komothai group follow the traditional Kenyan coffee processing method.
After harvest, cherries are floated to remove underripes and visually inspected to remove any overripes or damaged cherry. The coffee is pulped and then fermented for an average of 24 hours. Parchment is washed in clean water to remove any remaining mucilage and laid to dry on raised tables. Depending on weather conditions, the parchment takes around 14 days to dry. Producers received guidance to build their own raised tables and get support from a team of Sucafina Kenya field officers throughout all steps of the production process.
Farmers deliver their dry parchment to the Kahawa Bora Millers dry mill in Thika, Kenya. Here, the mill will do a first quality analysis to determine quality. The dry mill process cleans and sorts the parchment, hulls and finally separates the lots into the different screen sizes.
About Kenya C-grades
C lots (screen 14/15) from Kenya are flush with untapped potential. Every A and AB lot that is purchased has a C-grade lot that is its counterpart (this can be up to 17% of every ‘outturn’ - or milled lot of parchment). However, quality-focused farmers like the ones with whom we work are often unable to sell their C lots at value-added prices, even though they have the potential to be of high cup quality. We are tired of missing out on affordable, high-quality coffees.
Our size and the diversity of our offering allow us to work with growers to purchase the entirety of their production. Our focus is on quality, but we know that every producer needs to sell their entire crop, not just the top microlots. We can help find a place for every coffee, ensuring whole farm sustainability.
About Kiambu
Kiambu is right outside Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi but is nonetheless known for agriculture – specifically coffee and tea. The county is also home of the Kenyan Coffee Research Foundation.
Kiambu County is also well known for its dairy production, and is the largest dairy producing county in Kenya. Many of the growers here adhere to organic fertilizing practices, using only cow manure instead of agrochemicals on their coffee trees.
Farmers in Kiambu face low production due to pests and disease while simultaneously having to pay high prices for inputs. In recent years, many have felt the strain and have sold their land to real-estate developers looking to build on the edge of Nairobi.
Coffee in Kenya
Though coffee growing had a relatively late start in Kenya, the industry has gained and maintained a impressive reputation. Since the start of production, Kenyan coffee has been recognized for its high-quality, meticulous preparation and exquisite flavors. Our in-country sister company, Sucafina Kenya, works with farmers across the country to ensure these exceptional coffees gain the accolades they deserve.
Today, more than 600,000 smallholders farming fewer than 5 acres compose 99% of the coffee farming population of Kenya. Their farms cover more than 75% of total coffee growing land and produce nearly 70% of the country’s coffee. These farmers are organized into hundreds of Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS), all of which operate at least one factory. The remainder of annual production is grown and processed by small, medium and large land estates. Most of the larger estates have their own washing stations.
Most Kenyan coffees are fully washed and dried on raised beds. The country still upholds its reputation for high quality and attention to detail at its many washing stations. The best factories employ stringent sorting practices at cherry intake, and many of them have had the same management staff in place for years.