Kenya AB Iyego Factory 2025

Kenya AB Iyego

The Iyego Coffee Growers Cooperative Society was established in 1959 with 12 member factories. Over the years, this number has dwindled to five due to instability in coffee prices and industry operations. The 4,500 active members collectively produce around 1,600 metric tons of cherry each year on 2,000 hectares of land. The members are also the owners and shareholders of the cooperative, which is run by nine elected board members and a supervisory committee. There are 70 permanent staff members year-round, with additional seasonal workers supporting the harvest.

Kenyan green coffee beans are renowned for their bold, fruit-forward flavors and complex acidity. This coffee was grown in nutrient-rich volcanic soil at 1,620 to 1,650 masl, slowly ripening at high altitudes in cool temperatures. The dominant varieties are SL-28 and SL-34, Ruiru 11, and Batian.

Iyego runs a coffee nursery for Ruiru 11 and Batian saplings, which they sell or offer to farmers on credit to graft onto their existing SL trees. The cooperative has been working hard to leverage digital tools to enhance communication, improve training, and streamline payments to its farmers.

How is Coffee Graded in Kenya?

Green coffee from Kenya is graded by screen size. The grades range from E (Elephant Bean), PB (Peaberry), AA, AB, C, TT, T, and MH/ML, for a total of eight grades. While bean size can be an indicator of higher quality, size is not always a definitive measure of quality.

A consistent screen size in a coffee lot is important for roasting consistency, as uniformly sized beans roast at the same rate. In contrast, a lot with mixed bean sizes can potentially lead to uneven roasting, with smaller beans overdeveloping and larger beans under developing.

When is Kenya’s Coffee Harvest Season?

Kenya’s main coffee harvest season runs from October to December, meaning new crop coffees start shipping around February and March. Kenya also has a fly crop with a smaller yield from April to July.

Washed Kenyan Coffee Beans

The coffee harvesting and processing in Kenya begins with careful monitoring of cherry ripeness, ensuring only fully red cherries are handpicked in the early morning and transported to the wet mill. In the afternoon, harvested cherries are spread out on a patio, where underripes, overripes, and foreign objects are sorted out before being funneled into the pulping station.

Clean water helps move the cherries through the pulping house, where their outer fruit is removed, and the beans are separated by density. Floating beans are skimmed off, while denser beans move into fermentation tanks overnight. The next day, the wet mill manager assesses whether the sticky mucilage has broken down sufficiently before the beans are washed thoroughly.

Once cleaned, the beans flow into washing channels, where wooden shunts separate the denser, higher-quality beans from the lighter ones. Finally, the beans are carefully sun-dried on raised tables under strict supervision, covered and turned when necessary, and monitored until they reach the ideal 10-12% moisture content before being bagged for transport to the dry mill.

Kenya Green Coffee Beans

Kenya and Ethiopia may share a border, but their coffee industries have followed vastly different paths since the beginning. While coffee is native to Ethiopia, it wasn’t introduced to Kenya until 1893, when French missionaries planted the first trees in the Taita Hills.

For over a century, Kenya’s coffee could only be traded through a government-run auction system—one of the world's most transparent, designed to reward quality with higher prices. This system cemented Kenya’s reputation for consistently producing quality coffee. Since 2006, new legislation has allowed direct trade between farmers and international buyers.

Although Kenya’s coffee production declined in 2023/2024 due to disruptions from government reforms and the adoption of a new payment system, the outlook for this season is promising as operations stabilize and the industry adapts. Read more in our Kenya Origin Report.