Gathaithi Coffee Factory is owned by the 1656 members of the Gathaithi Farmers' Cooperative Society. The factory was built in 1967 & until 2000, was part of a larger cooperative, the Tetu Coffee Framers Society. The washing station is 160 km north of Nairobi, sandwiched between Mt. Kenya & the Aberdare Mountain Range. The average farm size is 1/2 an acre with 120 coffee plants.
At harvest, coffee cherries are hand-picked & then taken to the factory the same day. They are washed & then sorted to remove over/under-ripe cherries & foreign material. The cherries are then de-pulped & left to dry ferment overnight. The following day, the coffee beans are washed, soaked, and then spread out to dry on raised beds for 7-15 days.
Vive L'Afrique
region Nyeri County
farm/farmer Small-holder
altitude 1720 meters
crop 2024
cultivar SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, Batian
process Washed
SL28 was bred by Scott Laboratories in 1931 using various coffees from Ethiopia, Sudan & Yemen. SL34 is a mutation of French Mission Bourbon selected by Scott Laboratories in the '30s. Ruiru 11 was bred in 1985 at the Coffee Research Station in Ruiru. The aim was for a coffee plant with high resistance to coffee leaf rust & coffee berry disease. Batian, [named after the highest peak of Mt. Kenya] was bred at the Coffee Research Station for disease resistance & released in 2010.
Sorting green coffee on raised African beds at the Gathaithai washing station.
Coffee depulper at Gathaithi Washing Station.
Gathaithi co-op members farm.
Farmer sorting coffee cherries
Coffee drying on raised beds at Gathaithi Washing Station.
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