KENYA Gatina Ab
General Information
|
Origin: Kenya
County: Nyeri Cooperative: Mugaga Farmers’ Cooperative Society Washing Station: Gatina Farmers: 790 smallholder farmers (over 30% women producers) Cultivar: SL28 - SL34 - Ruiru 11 - Batian Altitude: 2050 masl Process: Fully washed with double fermentation Harvest: October- December Cherry Price | FOB Price: 5.38 USD/kg | 8.67 USD/Kg Screen | Moisture | Density: 15-16 | 10.7% | 0.721 g/ml Packaging: 30 Kg with GrainPro Score: 88 Notes: Citrus, Caramel, Raspberry, Black tea. |
|
TRACEABILITYGatina Washing Station is located in Nyeri County near Karatina on the fertile and high‑altitude slopes between Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range in central Kenya. The station was established in 1968 and today is managed by the Mugaga Farmers’ Cooperative Society, which supports ~790 smallholder producers, including a significant proportion of women farmers, in producing high‑quality coffee.
Farmers typically cultivate coffee on small plots (often about a few hundred trees per household), benefiting from cool temperatures, volcanic soils, and reliable rainfall, which promote slow cherry maturity and high bean density. During harvest, producers hand‑pick ripe cherries and deliver them to the Gatina station. At the mill, cherries are sorted and pulped on the same day to preserve freshness. After pulping, the coffee undergoes a washed processing sequence, including a controlled fermentation period to remove mucilage, thorough washing in clean water channels, and sometimes soaking to stabilize the beans. Following washing, the parchment coffee is laid out on raised African beds to dry evenly in the sun. These raised beds improve airflow and allow careful moisture control, which is crucial for developing the cup clarity and acidity characteristic of Kenyan washed coffees. Once dried to the ideal moisture content, the coffee is hulled, graded (AB screen size), and prepared for export. IS 1 USD PER 1 KG OF CHERRY POSSIBLE?Things are changing for the better in Kenya, the average price of coffee cherries has increased from USD 0.45 per kg of cherry in 2016/2017 to USD 0.80 per kg of cherry in the year 2020/2021, a 78% grow! But what has happened in the year 2021/2022?
According to information from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCI), coffee production increased by 64% in the 2021/2022 harvest, compared to the previous year, and income increased by 90% in the same period. This is the result of a lower supply to the global market, because in Brazil, the harsh weather conditions caused up to 20% of the entire harvest to be lost in the last season. And in Ethiopia, the world's fifth largest producer, agricultural activities have been interrupted by the conflict between the government and the militia in the Tigray region. Various Cooperatives of Coffee Producers in Kenya have announced the highest payment rates in history, which in some cases of cooperatives in Nyeri reach USD 1.10 per kg of cherry. This has generated excitement in many coffee growers, increasing the average production per coffee tree from 0.9 kg to 3 kg, which is still low, if we compare it with Latin American origins. In the case of the cooperatives with which we are working this season, we have found that the best payment reaches USD 1.06 per kg of cherry in Kagumoini factory and the worst USD 0.82 per kg of cherry for the New Murarandia factory. Our goal of reaching 1 USD per 1 Kg of cherries is getting closer, and we hope that it will be a widespread achievement for the entire Kenyan industry and serve as an example for other origins in Africa and the world, where payments per Kg of cherries they are much lower than in Kenya. A particularly worrying case is that of Burundi, where only USD 0.16 is paid for 1 kg of cherries. WHY FARMERS ARE GRAFTING RUIRU 11 WITH SL 28?Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby plant tissues are joined together to continue growing together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the stem, while the lower part is called the rootstock.
The Ruiru 11 variety was released in 1985. The name of the variety has the prefix "Ruiru" which refers to the location of the Kenya Coffee Research Station where the variety was developed. The variety is not only resistant to CBD and CLR, but is also compact, allowing farmers to intensify production per unit of land. The cultivar SL 28 was selected at the former Scott Laboratories (now the National Agricultural Laboratories, NARL located in Kabete) on the basis of a single tree, of the drought resistant variety Tanganyika selected in northern Tanzania in 1931. The prefix SL in the strain name stands for Scott Laboratories where the strain was selected. The variety is suitable for medium to high altitude coffee growing areas. In an attempt to change "low organoleptic reputation" of Ruiru 11, farmers are grafting it with SL28. For the lower part, they use the root of SL 28 which is much longer than that of Ruiru, and it can absorve more nutrients from the fertile Kenyan volcanic soils. For the top part, they use Ruiru 11, which is more resistant to coffee diseases than SL. They do this to gain the best of both worlds, the cup quality of the SL, with the strength and productivity of the Ruiru 11. |
VISITING KIUNYU FACTORY
Kiunyu FACTORY LOCATION
|
|
WHERE WE ARE
Barcelona, Spain Santiago, Chile Budapest, Hungary |