Kenya - Gichathaini

Gichathaini Wet Mill is located on the Western side of Mt. Kenya national park about 6 km from the town of Karatina in Nyeri County. This washing station is owned by the coffee farmers who deliver cherries to the station. This wet mill is one of the three washing stations from the Gikanda farmers’ cooperative society counting 770 active members.

One elected factory representative sit on the Gikanda FCS management
committee and is involved in making major decisions for the factory and for the Gikanda society as a whole.

Hand picked cherries are delivered to the wet mill where sorting is carried out on the same day prior to the pulping. Red ripe cherries are separated from under-ripes, over-ripes and foreign matter. Processing utilizes clean river water that is re-circulated before disposal into seepage pits.

The water used at the station for fermenting and washing the coffee is drawn from the nearby Ragati river using gravity-fed channels and is re-circulated during processing for conservation purposes. After use it is moved into soak pits away from water sources so
that it does not pollute the area.