Hundred House Coffee - Kenya - Aguthi Farmers Coop - Washed

The Coffee industry is a very crucial sector to the Kenyan economy. As a key export earner, it is the fifth foreign exchange earner after tourism, tea, horticulture and remittances from Kenyans in the Diaspora. The coffee industry ensures the livelihood of more than 700,000 smallholder farmers representing 3.5mil farm families organized into co-operatives and producing 60% of Kenyan coffee. The balance comes from estates that are small, medium to large in size.

Known as the heart of Kenya's Black Gold coffee, coffee from the Nyeri region is known to develop and mature slowly producing extra hard beans. Like 90% Kenyan coffee, this lot has been wet processed, where the fully ripe cherries are pulped, fermented, washed and then dried over a period of 2-3 weeks at the Sagana Coffee Mill.

Kenyan coffee contains more than 800 different aromatic compounds. Grown on well drained volcanic soils, mostly around the snowcapped Mount Kenya, Aberdare Ranges, Mount Elgon, the lowlands of Ukambani and the Kisii Highlands.

The question with Kenyan coffee has always been why the farmers are so poorly paid, despite producing the best coffee in the world. Through working with cooperatives such as this, we help towards shifting the landscape of the coffee business to be something in support of the small farmers as opposed to the multinationals.