The Kiandu Coffee Factory is part of the Mutheka Coffee Farmer’s Society, consisting of almost 6,000 active members. There is a common average of about 160 coffee trees per farmer, and most farms grow other crops such as maize, beans, and sweet potatoes. After picking, ripe cherry is brought to the factory by smallholder farmers, before it undergoes processing to remove the skin and pulp – known as the wet processing method. The factory is using a Mc Kinnon three disc pulper to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that is protecting the green coffee bean, before coffee undergoes a dry fermentation to break down the mucilage sticking to the parchment, staying in the fermentation tanks for 18 to 24 hours. Then, coffee travels through washing channels to insure all fruit is removed and goes through one final overnight soak before being spread out on raised drying tables. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature and total production volumes undergoing processing, and can take from 7 to 15 days in total.