Kenya AB Top Chorongi (2019 Crop)

This coffee comes from the Mutheka Coffee Farmer's Society and is milled at the Chorongi Factory in Nyeri District.

Chorongi factory is situated in the Chorongi sub-region of the Nyeri central district east of the Aberdare mountains. It started its operations in the year 1969 being factory number seven of the former Tetu Coffee Growers’ Co-operative Society ltd which had eighteen factories. In 1999, the society split into eighteen single factory societies, Chorongi factory being one of them. In the year 2004, the government encouraged the single societies to merge and form a large and economically viable group. This effort resulted to the formation of two societies: Aguthi and Mutheka Farmer’s Co-operative Society ltd. The factory has four different zones in the Chorongi catchment area. These zones are: Chorongi, Kiamwathi, Riamukurwe, and Thunguma.

The Mutheka Coffee Farmer's Society consists of more than 5600 active farmer members, with around 1000 of them belonging to Chorongi. Smallholder farmers delivering cherry to the factory have an average of 250 coffee trees each. The factory receives assistance from their partner Coffee Management Services (CMS) with the long term goal of increasing production and establishing transparent relationships. These relationships help support sustained growth with premium quality coffee and premium prices to the farmers. As a result, Chorongi has increased their production from less than 50,000kgs in 2010/11 to almost 250,000kgs in 2013/14!

The factory uses hydro electric power from the Thuta River.