An expected 120,000 coffee farmers in Kenya look set to benefit from the construction of a new “mega warehouse” in Kirinyaga County, which will have the capacity to hold up to 40,000 bags of parchment coffee.
The coffee storage warehouse is being constructed north of Nairobi by the Kirinyaga County Government, and is hoped to improve farmers’ capacity to directly market and sell their produce at auction.
Kirinyaga coffee farmers market their produce under the guidance of their union’s Kirinyaga Slopes Coffee Brokerage Company, which serves 14 cooperative societies across the county.
Chairman of the Kirinyaga County Cooperative Union, Geoffrey Kinyua, says the new facility will support the rapidly growing coffee production capacity of Kenyan farms.
“We produced around 42,000 tonnes of cherry last year and we expect to reach 60,000 tonnes soon, which the old warehouse couldn’t handle,” Kinyua says.
The warehouse is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It will measure 22 by 50 metres and include cyclones to ensure proper aeration.
Governor Anne Waiguru says the construction of the facility will further empower the region’s farmers to increase their earnings from coffee production.
“Once complete, this warehouse will enable us to store and mill coffee from all over the county at our facility,” she says.
The project is being completed by the county government under Kenya’s National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project, which aims to transform Kenyan smallholder farms to commercial by improving value chains and market access.
FAS Nairobi has previously forecast Kenya’s 2024-25 coffee production to total 750,000 bags, a 6.3 per cent decrease from the previous fiscal year, largely due to the slowing conversion of coffee farms into real estates and a shortage of coffee planting materials.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, Kenya accounts for roughly 0.4 per cent of global coffee production.
