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Archive News from Ndumberi Co-operative Project - July 2007

General

July was rather dry and cold. These conditions were good enough to lower the Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) incidences for expanding main crop beans, but at same time slowed down the ripening of early crop cherries. Drying of parchment beans out in the sun was also slowed down.

In other news, a series of earth tremors originating from Oldonyo Lengai, an active volcano near Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania, shook Nairobi and its environs including Ndumberi leaving many villagers in a state of nervousness. The wider Nairobi area experienced over 15 earth tremors in 10 days with the strongest measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale.

Oldonyo Lengai, which means a mountain of God in Maasai language, is located about 185 km from Ndumberi and is the only volcano known to emit carbonate lava instead of silicate lava.

Harvesting of early Crop comes to an end

As July came to an end, so did the harvesting of the early crop cherries in Ndumberi. Farmers hand pick only the ripest of cherries which undergo thorough hand picking before being pulped the same day. The beans are then fermented in vats for 36-48 hours, depending on the weather conditions, to remove the sugar coating referred to as the mucilage. The beans are then soaked in clean water to remove any taints and to allow good flavours to develop fully. Clean beans are then rapidly sun dried in thin layers, on skin drying tables to remove excessive water before going through a slow and controlled sun drying process for a number of days to attain the optimum moisture of 10.5%.

The Co-op was able to receive and process 150 tons of cherry by the end of July. This cherry yield was more than the 130 tons processed last year but less than the 250 tons the co-op had estimated to receive. 'We attribute the difference between received and estimated figures to the fact that July was very dry and devoid of the normal drizzling that allows the early crop to ripen. Some of what was to be part of the early crop is still on trees. But our bean drying facilities are still in good shape following a major rehabilitation undertaken by Mars Drinks and with less cherry yield than expected, quality will be super' states Mbugua, Ndumberi Co-op manager.

Ndumberi Co-op scoops top awards in a district fair

Ndumberi Co-op won 3 top awards during a district fare held on 7th July 2007 to celebrate the International Day for Co-operatives locally referred to as Ushirika Day. At a ceremony held at Limuru in Kiambu, the Co-op won three top awards namely "the Co-op Paying the Highest Rate", "Best Insured" and the Over all "Best Managed Co-op". Many analysts attribute the good performance and high payment to farmers by the Co-op to the savings made on repairs following the rehabilitation of the wet mills by Mars Drinks early last year and to premium prices the quality coffee produced by the co-op fetched. A sizeable amount of the co-op's coffee was bought by Mars Drinks for its sustainable product known as Kenyan Dawn™.

Riabai Clinic Project on course

The construction of the Riabai clinic is on course. The clinic, sponsored by Mars Drinks and the ECOM Foundation is expected to open its doors to patients late this year and will serve over 2,500 farmer families in Ndumberi.

After completion, the clinic will bring to an end the ordeal of farmers trekking for many kilometres before accessing a health facility.

'We are happy with the progress achieved so far, we are all eager to see the clinic open its door to farmer patients' states Raymond, the Co-op chairman.

Ndumberi Co-op prepares for Utz Verification

The Ndumberi co-op was the first co-op to have all its wet mills certified against an internationally accepted social and environmental standard. After achieving the Utz certification Ndumberi has gone on a winning streak and life has never looked so brighter for the small holder farmers.

The co-op is now working round the clock to prepare for the verification process slotted for August 18th. The Ndumberi Coffee Improvement Project sponsored by Mars Drinks will go a long way to assist the co-op to achieve the Utz certification for another year.

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