Video: Women in Kenya, Coffee Production

In this video, I'm interviewing a young teacher I met in Meru, Kenya about the issue of involving women in coffee businesses. It's an issue for Kenya, because coffee production on smallholder farms has been going down. There have been women staging what has been called a "revolt" because their husbands maintain full control over the cash that comes in, while the women do most of the work in the coffee fields. So in some areas, the women have refused to work on the coffee and instead grow bananas or other products. So the household then becomes a dual-cash-crop household. But coffee productivity goes down (the men are not industrious enough) and the women earn much less with bananas than they could with coffee.

Kenya-Meru-Riankune Cooperative

Feb. 24, 2011
Kenya, Meru region
Visit to Riankune Cooperative (and factory), 1400m (5250 ft), East side of Mt. Kenya, Kienganguru District (near Chogoria)
Rainfall: 1,500mm
Temp range: 16-20°C
Members: 360, each with 50 - 1000 coffee trees, harvesting ~130-150kg ea.
2010 production: 128,778 kg
Main harvest period: March-June
Types: 4 types of arabica: K7, SL28, SL34 and some Ruiru 11
Shade: 50% of acreage protected by shade

Andrew Kandia, marketing services agent with SMS, and I arrived about 9:30. First we met the vice-chairman of the society, Ephraiim Nkonge and Edafas Kenegen, the assistant manager. Soon Festus Kariuki, the factory manager, also arrived.

Grafting:
Together we looked at their nursery stock, obeserving how they are grafting SL28 to an SL34 base to create Ruiru11 saplings. Ruiru11 has proven to be more productive than SL28, but somewhat more susceptible to drought.

Farm visit:
As we walked up the hill to visit one of the farms, we met the Chairman of the society, Burini Ntaari. This tall, gentleman with glasses and a red sun hat welcomed us with a broad smile. I wish I knew more than my few words of Swahili because Mr. Ntaari did not speak English. He is 90 years old and still ably walked up and down the hills and through the trees with us the whole way. We arrived at the farm of Mr. Ntaari's brother, M'rucha Ntaari. We also met M'rucha's wife, son and his cows and goats. All seemed very happy and comfortable. Their farm grows many other crops and vegetables besides coffee, so it appears they have a diversified income.










Meeting the governing committee:
After touring the farm and the washing station, we met in the chairman's office with the 5 member cooperative board. Each person on the board represents a geographic region and therefore a certain number of farmers. We discussed the coffee Artisan Coffee Imports (my company) had purchased from the cooperative. The Vice-Chairman knew the price paid at the auction and exactly how many bags (it was a 44 bag microlot). The auction price (of $3.46/lb.) was a helpful discussion point to share how the value chain works after the auction. I gave the chairman 3 bags of roasted coffee from my customers, Metropolis and Mighty Good Coffee, and shared how at that point, the coffee is selling for $17-$19/lb. This insight got many interested looks and exclamations among the committee members.

Chairman Ntaari thanked me for the visit, (and the token gift of a Michigan cap), and said he would show the coffee bags to the other farmers to inspire their efforts to produce high quality coffee.

Day 3 - in Arusha, Tanz. EAFCA

Saturday, Feb. 19
This day ended up having both the typical frustrating and exhilarating experiences of a Western tourist in East Africa. It started out with the frustrating. My hotel, the Impala Hotel in Arusha, had no record that my 3 nights had been paid by my travel agent in Nairobi. They didn't even have a shred of evidence that the agency had placed my hotel reservation. I knew the agent had said they would pay the hotel, but I couldn't stay to argue with the guy, so I paid the hotel with my credit card and got on the shuttle going to the conference. Hours later after I was finally able to get the travel agent to call the hotel, Impala admitted they had been paid 2 days earlier and agreed to refund my credit card the charges for 3 room nights. I got the receipt to prove it.

At EAFCA, I was able to catch the sessions on coffee financing in Africa which included presentations by the Coffee Development Fund, Kenya and Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST). The FAST presenter was Noemi Perez, and I was privileged to be able to visit with her for about an hour after her presentation to learn more about what FAST is doing. They are a young, innovative player in the world of development finance and technical assistance.

I enjoyed sharing lunch (which was on the patio near the exhibit booths again) with coffee professionals from Rwanda and Cameroon. Then it was on to visit the Thika Coffee Mills booth. Thika is the miller that processed the Kenya AA Meru-Riankune that my company, Artisan Coffee Imports, is now selling (as decaffeinated green). Later, I got to hear most of the talk by David Griswold (Sustainable Harvest) on transparent trade models, which was the perfect segway as I departed for the airport to go to Kenya.

The airport taxi fee was the other frustrating Westerner experience I had. The hotel had told me the fee would be $50. I asked the driver once we were getting in the car if it could be $43. He readily agreed. I obviously paid too much! Should have started at $25.

Then came the flight from Arusha to Nairobi and the exhilarating things about being in East Africa: 1. meeting Sakina 2. seeing Kilimanjaro's peak from the plane as we flew by! Sakina and I met as we were checking in our luggage. She's a Nairobi native who had just been to a wedding in Tanzania. We talked, got on the plane together and as we did, discovered that she lives in the same neighborhood as the Methodist Guest House where I was going to stay! I invited her to ride with the driver that would be picking me up and she agreed. She canceled her driver. Attached is the best shot I could get of Kilimanjaro. I was sitting next to 2 young British women on the plane who and just climbed it and were cursing it. There had been early and heavy snows, which made the climb very cold, very tiresome (trudging through deep snow) and almost impossible. There's also a shot of the inside of the small airplane. Cozy, eh?