The factory that produced this lot lies in Githunguri, Kiambu county which is at the south-east on the foothills of Aberdare ranges and neighboring Nairobi. Gichuka Factory is under Kimaratia Farmers’ co-operative society, founded in 1995 and has 3 factories (Gachika, Gitare & Gichuka) with 2500 small farmers. Their production is around 189,998 kg with around 613 hectares of land.
In Gichuka Factory, there is an important group of employees called "Cherry-Clerk"
whose responsibility is to oversee the harvesting process. Any unripe or damaged
cherries will not be accepted. Cherry-Clerk will record the amount of coffee provided
by each producers every day, and producers must take away their rejected cherries
back, ending up with low-quality "Mbuni" during off-season. In this way they can
maintain coffee quality in the factory, and the profits of producers can be maximized.
The coffee is hand-picked, pulped and transferred to the factory’s fermentation tank
for traditional Kenyan washed processing before being sundried.
