FACT SHEET
Tasting Notes: Both sweet and tart, with suggestions of grape and stone fruit.
Farms: Rutuma FCS
Varietal: SL28, SL34 & Ruiru 11
Altitude: 1600-1700 M
Processing: Fully washed and sundried
Region: Mathira West District, Kirimukuyu division
About Karie Mill
Timely and selective hand picking is carried out at Karie wet mill. Cherry is delivered to the wet mill the same day it is picked. Cherry sorting is carried out at the wet mill prior to the pulping. Red ripe cherries are separated from underipes, overipes and foreign matter. Processing utilizes clean river water (wet processing) that is recirculated before disposal into seepage pits. Sun drying is done before delivery of the coffee to the dry mill for secondary processing.
Rutuma FCS has seven wet mills: Ruthagati, Ngandu, Kianjogu, Karie, Marua, Githima and Ndurutu. The co-op is located at Mathira division-Mathira West District. Geographically it lies on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. The society was registered under the cooperative societies act on the 10th of January, 1951. Formerly, these seven wet mills belonged to the former Giant Mathira FCS but after the split they formed Rutuma FCS.
The co-op is managed by an elected board of seven members, elected from each of the seven wet mills. Karie wet mill has one board member. Rutuma has three supervisory committee members. Currently the co-op has 39 permanent members of staff who are headed by a Secretary Manager. The Secretary Manager oversees the day to day running of the co-op under the supervision of the board.
Karie has 836 registered members. Currently 723 members are active and 113 are dormant. Amongst the members are 16 promoter farmers, one internal auditor and one gender rep. They are trained by SMS agronomists who eventually train farmers at zonal levels on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS).
Photo: Ai@ce (Flickr)
