The Kirinyaga County Government is constructing a coffee storage warehouse to strengthen farmer’s capacity to directly market and sell their produce at the auction.

The state-of-the art warehouse is expected to benefit over 120,000 coffee farmers in the county. The warehouse that is coming up at the Kirinyaga County Cooperative Union premises in Kimicha along Kutus-Kagio Highway is expected to address post-harvest challenges and improve earnings for the farmers.

It will have the capacity to hold up to 40,000 bags of parchment coffee — coffee that has been pulped, fermented and dried but not yet milled — and will be fitted with modern features such as aeration cyclones to ensure quality preservation.

Governor Anne Waiguru said the project is aligned to her administration’s vision to empower farmers increase earnings from production, value addition, processing and marketing in order to uplift their living standards.

She noted that the union has been constrained in terms of coffee storage since their existing facility is unable to hold increasing volumes of coffee.She emphasized the broader vision behind the project.

“Once complete, this warehouse will enable us to store and mill coffee from all over the county at our facility. My administration remains committed to making favorable policies that will strengthen coffee farming and ensure our farmers get value for their produce,” she said, noting that the efforts has paid off with Kirinyaga farmers getting the highest payoff in last season’s coffee where some cooperatives paid as high as Ksh.149 per kilo.

Kirinyaga coffee farmers market their produce under the auspices of their union’s Kirinyaga Slopes Coffee Brokerage Company which works closely to the County Government to improve the entire coffee value chain from milling to marketing.

The firm attained its brokerage status in 2023 after Governor Waiguru assisted in fast-tracking the issuance of its brokerage license at the Capital Markets Authority.

The firm has since been one of the best performing at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. Kirinyaga Slopes serves 14 cooperative societies across the county namely Mwirua, Kibirigwi, Inoi, Mutira, Kabare, Baragwi, Kanjuu, Mirichi, Rwama, Ngiriambu, New Ngariama, Rungeto, Thirikwa, and Karithathi all representing over 120,000 smallholder coffee farmers.

Geoffrey Kinyua, Chairman of the Kirinyaga County Cooperative Union, said the county’s rapidly growing production had created a pressing need for additional storage space.

“We produced around 42,000 tonnes of cherry last year and we expect to reach 60,000 tonnes soon which the old warehouse couldn’t handle.” he said.