Harvest Report: Kenya 2020 – Complicated Is Beautiful

Posted on July 30th, 2020

Caramel. Grapefruit. Cola. Ripe tomato. Red grape. Bright. Plum. Sugary. Savory. Apricot. Pineapple. Passionfruit. Chocolate.  We all know that Kenyan coffees are among the most complex in the world, but they’re also among the most complicated—in large part thanks to the country’s unique chain of custody, marketing process, and logistics. 

When we set out to tell our customers about the most recent Kenyan harvest every year, we realize it’s always a story with many, many chapters: Flavor, of course, is where the action happens, but there’s also lots of history required for the set-up, characters to introduce, and some plot twists along the way. Thankfully, these are just the kinds of stories we love to read, and the ones we love to tell—especially when everything turns out so delicious in The End.

Chapter One: The Beginning

Kenya’s history with coffee isn’t nearly as long as its northern neighbors Ethiopia and Sudan, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less interesting. The first trees were brought from the island of Bourbon (now called Réunion) by missionaries in the 1890s, but commercialization really began with the establishment of British- and other European-owned estates in the early 1900s: These estate-owners, along with the British colonial government, were interested in cornering a huge portion of the hot-beverage market by introducing and capitalizing on the production of coffee in what was already a large tea-producing country. In order to secure dominance in these fields, the colonial authorities prohibited Kenyans from growing coffee of their own, forcing them instead to work as laborers on the plantations. By the 1920s, coffee was a significant export crop, and all coffee produced in the country was sold and controlled by the market in London.

The passing of the Coffee Act in 1933 not only returned the marketing and sale of coffee back in-country to Kenya, and put into motion the establishment of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (N.C.E.), a weekly auction that is still in use today for a majority of the country’s coffee sales. (More about this later.) 

In the 1950s, agrarian reforms were passed in response to civil unrest toward the colonial government toward native Kenyans, allowing Kenyans to grow their own coffee for the first time and stripping many European landowners of their property. Redistribution schemes at that time began to create the network of smallholders that still dominates the country: More than 75 percent of the coffee farmers in Kenya own less than 3 hectares, and around 80 percent of farmers today are of Kenyan, not European, descent.

The period after Kenya won its independence in 1963 was a boom time for the country, as the weather cooperated and prices were high; however, the 1990s saw a price crisis that forced many Kenyans to rip out their coffee trees, causing precipitous drop in annual yields. In the 2000s and up to today, however, flavor has been the rallying cry of Kenya’s coffee industry: The increasing demand the spectacular profiles of specialty coffee have drawn many coffee lovers to the intense, dynamic, and yes, deeply complex notes found in Kenyan coffees from several regions. And that, friends, is part of why we’re here today.

Chapter Two: The Characters

Now, before we get to the cups, we naturally have to introduce you to some of the major players in our story. 

First, and most importantly, the farmers: There are around 700,000–800,000 in the country, but the average coffee producer might have as few as 80–200 trees on their property. For the most part, only large estates grow only coffee; smallholders typically also have tea, beans, yams, and other crops for sale and household use intercropped among the SL-28 and SL-34 on their property. 

Because smallholders grow so little volume individually, many belong to a Farmers Cooperative Society (F.C.S.), which counts as another entity in our cast of characters. These societies own and operate the coffee factories, which are what washing stations are called here. An F.C.S. might have anything from a couple hundred to a thousand or more smallholder farmer members who deliver cherry to the factory. 

The factories themselves get a line in the credits as well: It’s here that the coffee is sorted and weighed, at which time the producer receives a receipt for their total volume. The farmer is also given a bit of cash to walk home with, a base price that is paid out at the time of delivery; he or she will receive a second payment once the coffee is sold on an export market, making up the difference between the delivery price and the sales price, with necessary expenses deducted.

Now is the point in our story when the marketing agents come in: These actors play an integral role in the timeline of Kenyan coffee because they’re responsible for bringing the coffee to sale, and in getting the highest possible price for the producer.

The factories themselves get a line in the credits as well: It’s here that the coffee is sorted and weighed, at which time the producer receives a receipt for their total volume. The farmer is also given a bit of cash to walk home with, a base price that is paid out at the time of delivery; he or she will receive a second payment once the coffee is sold on an export market, making up the difference between the delivery price and the sales price, with necessary expenses deducted.

Now is the point in our story when the marketing agents come in: These actors play an integral role in the timeline of Kenyan coffee because they’re responsible for bringing the coffee to sale, and in getting the highest possible price for the producer.

Chapter Three: The Twist

When the coffee is in the marketing agents’ hands, things get really interesting. There are two main pathways through which they can sell the coffee they’ve been trusted with: the Kenyan auction system, or through a “second window” sale. 

The auction system is a common choice for many factories and their agents, because competition for high-quality coffees can drive the price up substantially. Marketing agents submit coffee samples, and their available lots are printed in a catalog for buyers, who will often decide ahead of time which lots to bid on, and what days to be present at the Nairobi Exchange. When a coffee comes up for bidding, it can be fast and furious: No one want to forever mourn “the one that got away.” 

If the marketing agent has a relationship with direct buyers, however—typically an exporter, or the importer/roaster partner of an exporter—they can negotiate a sale more directly, by working out a price before the coffee goes to the N.C.E.   

Enter the dynamic duo from Cafe Imports: Megan, mentioned above, and Claudia Bellinzoni, our green-coffee buyer for Africa. For the past few years, Claudia and Megan have tag-teamed the buying cycle in Kenya, in order to handle the hot-and-heavy cuppings that happen at the peak of the sales season.

“Kenya is very different from every other origin I have,” Claudia says: She’s used to sourcing trips with a little more time, conversation, reflection, and farm visits. Kenya, on the other hand, is not like that.

“The main challenge is to fly there as soon as the coffee is ready to cup, and cup thousands of samples, and commit immediately, ‘I will buy,’ or ‘I will not buy,’ because you are surrounded by other buyers,” she says with a laugh. “Megan is amazing for this. She’s very passionate about Kenya, and she’s so fast at cupping! After a while I get fatigued, but she can go on and on.”

This year’s trip was complicated by the fact that it came early, so everything had to move at a lightning pace. “The rain was a problem, and flooding everywhere,” Claudia says, explaining that producers had to harvest early and quickly in order to avoid losing their entire crop from excessive moisture. “The harvest and everything was ready by early February,” which also meant that Claudia had to high-tail it to Kenya straight from several weeks of cupping and sourcing in Ethiopia. (Whew!)

In just over a week’s time, Claudia and Megan might cup 1,000–1,400 coffees, make split decisions about lot sizes and price, and still manage to come home waxing poetic about the flavors they found… but that’s the next chapter.

Chapter Four: Flavor

Ah yes, the delicious conclusion of the story—well, naturally it ends in the cup, right? 

Claudia and Megan are always looking for the top-scoring lots they can dip a spoon into, and they source within four major growing regions: Embu, Kirinyaga, Mt. Elgon, and Nyeri. 

Embu’s coffees tend to be more balanced, with a perfect marriage of sugary sweetness, black tea, grapefruit, and cola. Mt. Elgon has more of that “classic” Kenya profile of tart, sweet, and savory: blackcurrant and lemon, tomato, lemon-lime, and raisin. Kirinyaga’s coffees express tropical flavors: pineapple mango, lychee, and honey. Nyeri boasts lively acidity with caramel sweetness, white grape, plum, raspberry, and fig.

The End?

While this might be the end of the harvest report, it’s only the beginning for you: Fresh-crop Kenyan coffees just landed in our warehouse, where they’re waiting for you to write the next chapter—and everybody knows the best stories are written over amazing cups of coffee, so why wait?