We have bought Kenyan coffee for many years. Nearly every lot has been a washed micro-lot—a small lot kept separate—from a cooperative factory in Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga or Embu. These coffees have grown at roughly 1,500 to 1,900 meters.

In Kenya, “factory” means a wet mill where farmers bring their coffee cherries for processing. Our longest relationships are with three of these factories and the cooperatives behind them.

Coffee was first planted in Kenya’s Taita Hills in 1893 and soon spread to the highlands near Nairobi. Colonial policy kept Arabica largely in settler hands; in some places, officials uprooted trees planted by African farmers.

Limited African coffee-growing schemes began in the mid-1930s. Access expanded under strict controls after 1947 and accelerated during the 1950s under the Swynnerton Plan, drawn up during the Mau Mau Emergency. Smallholders using family labor proved competitive with settler estates.

After independence in 1963, cooperatives and Nairobi’s weekly auction remained central to the industry. Production peaked in 1987/88, then declined amid falling prices, payment delays, rising costs, disease and cooperative management problems. Coffee land near Nairobi was also lost to housing and other uses. Subsequent reforms have sought to improve marketing and farmer payments, but production remains well below its 1980s peak.