Posted by Scott Kee, Director of Purchasing for Dunn Bros Coffee
As follow up to our initial post, our Co-op travelers Mr. Simon Muriithi (Gatto Estates), Mr. Tirus Gathugu (Gatunyu/Kigio Chairman) and Josephine Ngethe of Deloitte consulting limited are back from the Mount Kilimanjaro and Ngorogoro regions of Tanzania. The trip was long on hours, short on sleep, with plenty of driving in between the coffee growing areas. Here is the lightly edited progress report and a detailed account of the trip from Simon Mwangi Muriithi. Dunn Bros Coffee is now confident the washing station Coop members will accept the machinery into the daily coffee processing routine. We will be receiving detailed equipment quotes in the next 10 days and will write about the next stage shortly.
Safari Tanzania – Penagos project
I am Simon, the co-founder of Gatto Estates Kenya Ltd, and here is my account of a wonderful adventure to Arusha, Tanzania in search of a treasure called penagos. A coffee processing technology that we hear will benefit our people; our farmers and our co-operative society, help save money and better yet conserve water in the coffee processing. Here it is:
We left Nairobi with Mr. Tirus Gathugu chairman (Gatunyu / Kigio) accompanied by Josephine Ngethe from Deloitte Consulting who is assisting us with World Bank/ Government of Kenya matching Grant program, at 8:30 am aboard a tour van. Through Namaga, the Kenya Tanzania border point we had to clear with the Immigration department on both sides.
We arrived in Arusha at 3:00 pm, where we met Mr. Ulf a representative and marketer of the Penagos technology in Eastern Africa. He had made prior arrangements for our accommodation at Impala Hotel and transport to the Farm. We changed vehicles and immediately set off for Ngorogoro with Mr. Juma the driver of a truck provided by Mr. Ulf. Mr. Juma is Ulf’s’ Partner who is an engineer.
Our trip to Ngila Estate at the foot of Ngorogoro Craters was about 160kms from the town of Arusha. The drive was a smooth one all the way on well tarmacked roads.
Upon arrival at Ngila estate we found the coffee cherry pulping in progress. Here we found our treasure, the penagos machine - a 2500 Model which pulps 2500kgs (1200LBS) of cherry per hour. It was an exciting first experience on how modern technology can be used to make work so much easier on the farmers’ side.
The machine can pulp so much coffee using very little water, unlike the old technology disk pulping machines.
Let me say you cannot compare the outcome off the process using Penagos Machine; it’s very clean in two ways. First, the raw skins are all carried away by elevators where they are collected a distance from the processor and second: the mucilage remover which removes all the mucilage on the coffee and leaves it so impressively clean. This also eliminates the need to ferment coffee for between 48 hours to 72 hours, from our observation this helps eliminate the problem of over fermentation in the tanks.
After the coffee goes through the mucilage remover it is carried by a channel to the soaking tank for only 12 hours compared to the long 72 hours old process.From the soaking tank, the coffee is taken to the Separator which separates the lights and over ripes. This reduces the sorting process, labour and also the time required at the drying shed; amazingly this machine does not require water to sort parchments.
The end result of these processes is a very clean parchment which becomes a high quality bean after milling.
The Drying table were very well maintained, we were quick to note that some of the stands for the tables were build from concrete and barbed wire. These looked more permanent unlike the wooden once which are destroyed by termites. Parchment at the drying tables looked so clean and nice as well.
After Ngila estate we had to travel back to Arusha town where we had our supper at around 10.00pm. There after we were taken to Impala Hotel where we spent the night.
On Saturday morning Mr. Juma arrived at around 10.00 am, and we left Arusha for Masama Factory in Kilimanjaro some 83 Kilometres from Arusha Town. This Factory is near Central Coffee Pulping of Kilimanjaro.
The Penagos machine installed there was small compared to the one at Ngila Estates. This is a 500 Model which pulps 500 Kilograms of cherry per hour; coffee here is sourced from small scale farmers in small quantities.
After Pulping the other process is manual with little modifications here and there, we noticed that they had improvised and screwed in a shaft to remove the waste after pulping the cherry where its is colleted in a waste tank, Mr. Juma commented that this forms good manure from cultivation of the farms.
After pulping the parchment is hand sorted on the drying tables.
We later left and headed back to the border on our way home.
This was a wonderful experience and an eye opener for all of us. Today I can say I appreciate the modern Penagos technology better. It’s hard to imagine the process unless you see it yourself, it was simply superb.
The trip was excellent but long, tiring but well worth it.
There is a Kikuyu saying that “He who does not travel assumes mum is the best cook” – very appropriate for this situation.
~ Simon Mwangi Muriithi.
Gatto Estates Kenya, October 2008
An excellent narrative of the Tanzania trip from Dad. I wish I was there to see the Penagos system at work. Most of comments that I have heard so far from the members of Gatanga is about the separator: Farmers understand the enormous cost of labor and the water consumption that goes into separating and fermentation of coffee at the factory level. They are excited about penagos and the separator and they are looking forward to the installation and training.
John - Simon's son and co-founder of Gatto Estates Limited
Posted by: John Gatu | October 28, 2008 at 11:34 PM
It is wonderful that these farmers are going to be able to benefit from the penagos technology. They provide our country with so much in the quality coffee beans which they produce. It is only right that they should have good modern equipment with which to process it.
Posted by: Katie | December 04, 2008 at 08:15 AM
how doe this stimulate the economy?
Posted by: Sam Waterstone | February 01, 2009 at 07:15 AM