07Kenya
667,000 bags (ICO 2009)In-depth country profile: production, varieties, classification, history, current situation and points still uncertain. Region: Africa.
Kenya is a neighbor of Ethiopia, and yet it took up coffee late, at the very end of the 19th century. What distinguishes it is not age but organization: few countries have structured their sector as rigorously, to the point of building cup quality into the selection of the best lots.
A third of the plantations belong to large landowners; the rest is shared among a multitude of smallholders grouped in cooperatives. The coffees are mostly washed, and sales are made on samples, through the Nairobi exchange.
- Botanical species
- Arabica
- Altitude
- 1,400 to 2,100 m
- Soil type
- Volcanic
- Shade
- Varies by plantation
- Harvest
- Manual and selective
- Processing
- Wet process (mainly) and dry process
- Sorting
- Mechanical and manual
- Harvest period
- October to March
- Packaging
- 60-kg bag
Washed arabica: by bean size
| Grade | Description |
| E | Exclusive sorting of “Elephant” beans |
| AA | Screen 17/18 |
| AB | Screen 15/16 |
| PB | Exclusive sorting of “Peaberry” beans |
| C | Screen below 12 |
| TT | Light beans |
| T | The smallest and thinnest beans, often flattened, broken or defective |
Cup quality
Old scoring from 1 (best) to 10. Today only the FAQ (Fair to Average Quality) mention remains common, with an “FAQ+” for the best lots. Coffees from the main crop are considered superior to those from the intermediate crop.
Natural arabica
| Grade | Description |
| MH / ML | Unwashed and not hand-picked (cherries gathered from the ground). ~7% of the harvest, poor quality |
| M'buni | All the beans set aside from the other lots |
History
Coffee arrives late: Ukers dates the introduction of the crop in British East Africa, that is, the colony that would become Kenya, to 1901. The material comes from Réunion.
The rise is then rapid. In 1918, the colony already exported 18,735,572 pounds, the largest African figure in Ukers's table. A British officer drew a prediction from it in 1920: British East Africa “is going to become one of the great coffee countries.”
Another route of introduction exists, and it is the varieties that give it away. In Kenya there is the French Mission, a Bourbon brought by the Spiritan missionaries. That arrival precedes 1901, but no primary date allows it to be placed.Ukers, All About Coffee (1922), ch. II, pp. 5-10; Ukers 1922, ch. XX, pp. 216-244, p. 243; Ukers 1922, ch. XXII, pp. 289-291 (exports of the producing countries), p. 291, World Coffee Research, Coffee Varieties Catalog 2025, French Mission entry
Ukers, All About Coffee (1922), ch. II, p. 5-10; Ukers 1922, ch. XX, p. 216-244, p. 243; Ukers 1922, ch. XXII, p. 289-291 (exports of the producing countries), p. 291; World Coffee Research, Coffee Varieties Catalog 2025, French Mission profileKenyan coffee growing was at first a colonial monopoly. The Swynnerton Plan of 1954 finally authorized African farmers to grow coffee, which had been reserved since 1900 for European settlers; ten years later, they produced the majority. In the meantime, the Scott Agricultural Laboratories had selected SL28 in 1931-1935, from a tree of the Tanganyika Drought Resistant lineage, then SL34 in 1935-1939, and R. H. Walker K7 in 1936.
Swynnerton, A Plan to Intensify the Development of African Agriculture in Kenya (1954); Pendergrast 1999, ch. 13; World Coffee Research, Coffee Varieties Catalog 2025, SL28, SL34, K7 profilesThe coffee berry disease epidemic of 1971 destroyed part of the Kenyan harvest. The name of the disease says the essential: it strikes the cherries, and so directly what is sold.
The Coffee Research Foundation responded with breeding. It built Ruiru 11, a composite F1 hybrid released in 1985.
An F1 hybrid crosses two very different parents, which gives it remarkable vigor. But its seeds segregate: sown, they do not give back the same tree. It must therefore be multiplied by cloning, not by sowing.
- Next came Batian, a tall composite variety released in 2010 by the CRF, which in the meantime became KALRO. Its interest is not only a matter of health: its cup comes close to that of the SLs. That is what counts in a country whose reputation in the cup rests on these lineages.McCook 2019
- World Coffee ResearchCoffee Varieties Catalog 2025, Ruiru 11 and Batian profiles
- LC ch. 15
Today
The volume at the head of the profile, 667,000 bags, is the one the profile gives (ICO 2009). The coffees are mostly washed, between 1,400 and 2,100 meters, with selective hand picking. The Kenyan particularity is the prolonged double washing, often presented as a long fermentation although it is first of all a washing and a soaking in clear water. A third of the plantations belong to large landowners, the rest to a multitude of smallholders in cooperatives; sale is by sample through the Nairobi exchange, and the cup quality enters into the selection of the best lots.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026; LC ch. 17bGray areas
- The date of 1901 is Ukers's for British East Africa; arrival through the Spiritan missions is older, with no primary date available here.
- No Kenyan production volume after 2009 could be sourced.
- The current share of SL28 and SL34 in the orchard, compared with Ruiru 11 and Batian, is not quantified by the sources consulted.
- The exact mechanism by which Kenyan double washing acts on the cup is not established.