KENYA NGUNGURU

About Kenya Ngunguru PB Washed

Ngunguru is located in the rich agricultural zone of Nyeri; widely reputed as the best producing region for quality coffees in Kenya. Formerly part of the South Kirimukuyu Farmer Co-op, Ngunguru became a part of the Tekangu Farmer Co-op in March 2005, of which the famed Tegu and Karogoto factories are also members.

The factory is comprised of 800 producers, a factory manager, office clerk, machine operator and a field supervisory committee, charged with monitoring operations and supervising field agronomic practices to ensure coffee quality and that member farmers are adhering to production regulations. Farms are visited often by the committee in order to receive advice on best agricultural practices.

The factory is currently producing 400,000 kg of cherry every year. The farmers from this region are mostly using Grevillea, macadamia and blue gum trees as shading. The coffees from this factory are fully washed with fresh stream water and sun dried in African Beds, resulting in a floral cup with currants notes and citrus acidity.

About Kenya

Kenya is a powerhouse coffee Origin and one that is dear to our hearts. Traditional production practices and attention to detail at the best mills and Estates favour quality unparaelled in other coffee origins and the flavour profiles coming from the best lots can be sublime.

Kenya also has one of the most transparent and rigid buying systems in the world at the Nairobi auctions. There are a number of very well organised, established estates surrounding Nairobi - however the majority of supply comes from farmers organised into cooperative structures as the average farmer will typically have land of between 0.5 and 3 acres. By law in Kenya a farmer with under 5 acres must be organised into a cooperative.

Typically a Coop society may service a number of washing stations - each servicing there surrounding small holder farmers to bring coffees to mrket. It is illegal to sell cherry to a middle man, so to finance, educate, and provide inputs and support to farmers, there are a group of ‘market agents’ who act as representatives to the farmer throughout the chain. These Market agents act as the dry mill partners, and will take their cooperative partner’s coffee through the auction system. Market agents cannot own coffee - they instead charge their partner’s fees for the service of milling, and a small percentage of auction prices once the coffee is sold. These agents are a very important step in connecting the farmer to the market - as it is their samples that are passed on to all exporters bidding at auction - and they along with farmer will set the reserve price at auction and will then negotiate with the end buyer if this reserve is not met.

There are around 15 truly active exporters in Kenya - however there are over 60 registered at auction. Each exporter will cup over 600 lots from the 10 active market agents before each week’s auction. Due to the traceability enforced by law of where each small lot comes from - exporters with experience know which Market agent, representing which society or mill, will produce certain qualities.

Exporters then go to the Nairobi auctions on a Tuesday, after extense cupping and select the lots they want to bid on, and compete with the other exporters to select the lots they want for their markets.