Page 80 - #57 English

Origin

THESE DAYS, KENYAN COFFEE IS MADE UP OF TWO
MAIN SECTORS

Smallholder cooperatives began building factories/wash-
ing stations in the 1960s so that they could process their
coffees the way large plantations did. Nowadays, these facto-
ries serve up to 2,000 members each. Smallholders, overall,
control of 58% Kenya’s coffee production. Not only do they
contribute the largest proportion of coffee, they are known
for producing the highest quality coffee coming out of Kenya.

KENYA COFFEE
CHANGING TIMES: THE RISING SMALL
1 ESTATE FARM
plantations, made up of ±3,300
farms comprising an area of Given Kenya’s coffee history, it is unsur-
25% ±40,000 hectares (ha) of coffee. prising that the cooperative has been the
Within the plantation sector,
PLANTATIONS there are 3000 small estates (<50 dominant seller of Kenyan specialty coffee.
ha) and 300 large estates (>50 Specialty coffee buyers are very used to working
ha). This accounts for about 25%
of Kenya’s coffee planted land. with cooperatives and marketing Kenyan coffees
75% 2 in this way. But not all cooperatives are working
SMALLHOLDER The other 75% is comprised of equally well and it has often proved frustrating
FARMERS the coop sector, made up of 270 for a buyer to align themselves with specific
cooperatives with a member- coops and/or factories because of things like
ship totalling 700,000 small-
holder farmers cultivating corruption, mismanagement issues, and fluctu-
120,000 ha of coffee. ating quality.
It is for these reasons, traceability con-

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