I've managed to set up the blog that will depict the fantastic journey that Peter Hall and I are doing together to visit the projects we have or are setting up as part of the Brighter Tomorrow At Origin Programme.

We first spend 2 days at the Ndumberi Coffee Cooperative in Kenya and then we are off to Malawi to visit the Kawalazi tea garden.

Read more about our trip in the articles that follow !

First day at the Ndumberi Coffee Cooperative

Today I am writing to you from Nairobi in Kenya where Peter Hall and I are spending a couple of days to visit the Ndumberi Coffee Cooperative as part of the Brighter Tomorrow At Origin programme. This morning we spent some time with Sangana, our local buyers, who have helped setting up and managing the relationship with the Ndumberi cooperative. We reviewed everything that happened in 2006 and it looks very impressive ! Four Square first visited the cooperative in March 06 and by May 06 Kenyan Dawn, our first sustainable coffee, was launched in the UK. The project we sponsored in 2006 was the rehabilitation of the 3 wet mills of the cooperative. This included among other things the replacement of drying tables and of fermentation and soaking tanks. The work we sponsored also helped the cooperative secure the Utz Kapeh certification, which sets strict economic, social and environmental criteria. Ndumberi is now the first cooperative Kenya which has this certification, quite an achievement!

Ndumberi visit day two

This is day two of our visit in Kenya. It is hot as temperatures reached 29C and I know that it is particularly cold in the UK so I feel very lucky !

First thing today Peter and I went to the Kenyan coffee auction, where all the Kenyan coffee gets traded on a weekly basis. It gives me the opportunity to understand better the coffee trading business.

Kawalazi day one

Today has been quite a long day with a lot of travelling!

We left the Nairobi hotel at 6.30 to catch our flight to Lilongwe in Malawi, for the second leg of our trip. We travel there with Viren from the Global Tea and Commodities and arrive in Lilongwe by 10 am. We are welcomed there by Pannu who is the manager of the Malawi estates.

Kawalazi day two

This is now our first full day at the Kawalazi plantation. We went to bed early last night and so felt much refreshed this morning.

We started the day by discussing the different projects that are possible to implement here as part of the Brighter Tomorrow at Origin programme.

Kawalazi day three

Unfortunately I am writing to you back in the UK since the last few days in Africa were hectic and I did not get the chance to do my daily blog!

So I am now casting my mind back to Friday which was our last day at the Kawalazi plantation.

Jambo!

FLAVIA Global Product Manager