The Ndumberi Co-op has paid farmers for the Mbuni cherry delivered last season. Mbuni refers to coffee cherries that are sun dried whole at farm level. After drying the Mbuni cherry to a moisture content of about 11.5%, farmers deliver the Mbuni to collection points at the wet mills for bagging and onward delivery to a dry mill. After dry milling, Mbuni coffee is normally graded into two grades- Mbuni Heavy and Mbuni Lights. Farmers are happy with payments they received for their Mbuni cherry, most of which was bought by Sangana Commodities Ltd at the auction.

The Ndumberi Co-op has acquired a new Mbuni Huller. The Huller is intended to process Mbuni Cherry at wet mill level and thereby save the co-op a big chunk of Mbuni transportation cost.

Mbuni cherry, with an average milling loss of 50% and above, would reduce cherry transportation cost by half if the hulling was done at the Co-op level. The hulls will then be collected by farmers for composting and use as organic manure.

The Ndumberi Co-op hosted a successful coffee quality and marketing workshop sponsored by the East Africa Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA) and the Swedish Chambers. The two days workshop was held on 20th and 21st August and was attended by over 100 participants drawn from neighbouring co-ops, estates and representatives from the government and the coffee trade.

The Ndumberi Co-op is currently seen as a model co-operative society thanks to business links with Mars Drinks and Sangana Commodities Ltd.

Michael Kimani Kigochi is a respected farmer. Michael was born at Ndumberi village in 1944 to a small scale farm family of 13 children. Unfortunately, Michael’s father died in 1953 when Michael was only 9 years old. The task of fending for and educating the big family was left on his mother’s shoulders. Thanks to coffee trees planted by the father before his death, the family was able to survive.

Michael, a married father of 10, has also managed to educate his children through the sale of his coffee cherry to the Ndumberi co-op. He has 920 stems of coffee which last season gave him about 1000 kilos of cherry. In a good year and when prices are good Michael can produce as much as 4000kg of cherry. With the help of his wife Beatrice Wanjiru, Michael grows coffee, macadamia, bananas and other food crops and keeps some cows on his 3 acre farm.

Sometime in August Michael injured his leg while working in the shamba. He had to walk a long distances to access a health facility. Sometimes he could not afford the fees charged by the hospital. For Michael and many more Ndumberi farmers, this ordeal is about to end thanks to Mars Drinks sponsored Riabai Clinic.

"I am very excited about the Riabai Clinic, I hope they will arrange credit facilities for treatment and drugs against cherry delivered to Wet Mills. This will ensure that as long as farmers deliver cherry to the co-op, they and their families can access health care even without cash on hand. Farmers are also encouraged by the assistance to repair the wet mill facilities and the good prices for coffee we get from Mars Drinks, we hope the partnerships lasts a life time and grows from strength to strength" states Michael as he proudly gives a tour of his farm.