Ruera is one of the largest estates in Kiambu County, one of Kenya’s best known coffee growing regions, due to its red volvanic soils. It provides employment to more than 1,000 people across cultivation, harvesting and processing activities. Its scale makes it an important local employer and a longstanding part of the rural economy.
Nearby Ruera Estate, Ruiru is home to the research centre where generations of scientists worked to address the challenges facing Kenyan coffee production, and where the Ruiru 11 variety was developed and released.
Coffee is hand picked on the estate, and sorted again once delivered for processing. Cherries are then floated, and any cherries that rise to the top are skimmed off and removed. Cleaned cherry is anaerobically fermented for 18 hours before being sun dried on raised beds. The dry mill hulls the cherry, then colour sorts with one last handpicking before bagging.
