Kiandu AB

Producer info:

This lot was grown by a group of smallholder farmers who are all members of the Mutheka Farmers Cooperative Society (FCS) and deliver their coffee to Kiandu Coffee Factory. The facility lies in Kenya's renowned Nyeri County, near the town of Tetu.

Mutheka FCS is a very new organisation that was created in 2004 after the Giant Tetu Coffee Growers Co-Operative Society split. The FCS is located in Nyeri County, east of the Aberdare Ranges and west of Mt. Kenya, and manages seven factories with a total membership of approximately 6,000 small-scale coffee growers. Kiandu Factory has almost 1,900 registered members, making it one of Mutheka's largest. Only a small percentage of Kenyan coffee factories actively deliver coffee in any given year.

Handpicked coffee cherries are sent to the mill the same day, in which they are carefully sorted. Employees from the factory supervise the procedure, and any cherries that are under ripe or damaged will not be accepted. Any unwanted coffee will get sent home, and the grower will have to find a location to dry it, with the coffee being provided only at the end of the season as low-quality 'Mbuni' natural-process coffee with a low price. Farmer members are rewarded for picking and delivering only the ripest cherries.