This is a wonderful Kenyan coffee that we have bought directly from the Rumukia cooperative together with our good friends The Coffee Collective in Denmark.

About the factory:

The Kiawamururu factory was initially under the Mukurwe-ini coop society which disintegrated in the 1990’s and it later joined the Rumukia Farmers Coop Society in 2004. The factory has 705 registered members but only about 560 of these delivered coffee in 2008. The members are so called “small holder farmers” posessing an average of 0,5 acreage of land each where they grow mainly coffee (about 250 trees in average) and some other small crops. The average production of coffee during the last 6 years at Kiawamururu factory has been 241.591 kg.

(Operational Manager of Kiawamururu Peter Kingori and Chairman of the Kiawamururu factory Patrick Kinyua. )

The factory is a Fair trade certified factory and has adopted certifications for good agricultural practices. All water used in the processing of the coffee is recirculated and filtered before it is let out in nature, far away from water sources. The coffee pulp is collected from the factory by the farmers and used as fertilizer for the coffee trees. In order to attain and maintain quality standard the members are trained on a regular basis in sustainable farming practices and also in how to handle and apply pesticides, etc. The Factory has their own demonstration plot near the factory where this training takes place.

The Rumukia farmers coop society is a well developed cooperative that focuses on producing quality coffee and get high prices for this coffee in order to improve the quality of life of it’s members. In fact they were awarded as the factory who payed the highest rate to their farmers for the 2005/06 crop in Kenya.   They provide credits for their farmers in order for them to pay for farm input and paying school fees for their children throughout the year.

The members are provided with documentation about how much their coffee was sold for so that they know how much money they can expect for the coffee they delivered to the cooperative. In addition the coop’s marketing agent provides us and the farmers with documents on all money transfers so that all transactions are made rightfully according to the law. This is important as Kenya is struggelign with corruption which has lead to farmes not always getting payed what is rightfully their money .

Problems:
The cooperative and the farmers struggle with low prices and high production costs due to a lot of leaf rust and coffee berry disease. They also need funds in order to improve their drying tables and parchment storage facilities. There are also some farmers who do not comply with the new rules laid down in order to improve the quality of the coffee. Hopefully the premium price we payed for their coffee this year will help motivate these farmers in focusing even more on quality.

Info:
Cooperative: Rumukia Farmers Coop Society
Lot size: 960 kg (+ 2400 kg that was sold to The Coffee Collective in Denmark)
Producer: Several smallholders
Harvest: December 08
Origin: Gakindu, Nyeri, Kenya.
Growing conditions: 1500 m.a.s. in red vulcanic soil. Trees like
Gravellea, Macadamia and Eukalyptus are used to give shade for the coffee trees. Temperatures range between 15C and 26C with low temperatures experienced in June- July and high temperatures in January - February. Wet periods from March - June and October - December.
Botanical variety: SL 28 & SL 34
Process: The coffee is hand picked by the farmers and their families. After delivering the coffee to the different factories, the good coffee cherries are separated from the inferior ones by hand. Then the cherries are depulped, the beans are fermented and washed before they get dried on african elevated drying tables. The coffee was vacuum packed prior to being shipped to Norway.

Taste description:
Aroma: Smell of black currants and forest berries.
Acidity: Crisp berry- like acidity.
Mouthfeel: Clean and elegant tea- like mouthfeel. Refreshing finish.
Flavour: A very transparent coffee with tastes of redcurrants coffee flowers and tea.

Below is a slideshow from our Trip to kenya in 2009. You can also see a video from the trip here.