Mahiga Factory

Mahiga is a washing station – or factory, as they are called in Kenya – located in Nyeri County in the Rukira village. Established in 1962, it is one of seventeen active washing stations – owned by Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society.

Mahiga receives coffee cherries from 400 of the cooperative’s members (260 male, 140 female) who grow coffee trees beside tea trees on nearby farms, located between 1,700-1,900 meters above sea level. Manager Daniel Kingori oversees the collection and careful processing of the coffee cherries. Besides Jackson, Mahiga employs five permanent staff members and an additional ten workers during the season. The coffee cherry is processed by a four-disc pulper, before being dried and sorted on the factory’s raised tables. Mahiga sits at 1,800m above sea level and is located near the Mumwe river. Fresh, clean water is pumped from Mumwe to process coffee, contributing to its exceptional quality.

ABOUT OTHAYA FARMERS’ COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

Othaya Farmers Co-operative Society Limited is situated about 150km north of Kenya's capital, Nairobi in Othaya Town, Nyeri County. Othaya is sandwiched between Mountain Kenya and the Aberdare Ranges, at an altitude of 1828 meters (approximately 6000 feet) above sea level. The Society was registered in 1956 as a coffee marketing society with an initial membership of 250 farmers. Currently, the Society has 17 factories with a total membership of 11,000 small scale farmers. It has 7 management committee members.

The Society has coffee nurseries for coffee seedlings, 17 coffee factories/wet mills and store outlets in each of the wet mills for provision of farm inputs. The Society also has a dry mill that serves the coffee factories through finance raised by selling shares to the members.

The Society is Fair-Trade certified, which is helping in penetrating the world's markets, and as a result benefiting the community more. The community in this region relies on agriculture as the main source of livelihood. The ground coffee has also acquired Kenya bureau if Standards certification (KEBS) ensuring high quality and consistency of the product. The members of Othaya Farmers Co-operative Society Limited care about the community. The activities the society is involved in include visiting the children’s homes and offering assistance to the needy, construction of footbridges. In partnership with Tree House and Aga Khan Hospital, we have held free medical screening camps for the community.

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