Nyeri

Nyeri is one of the classic names in Kenyan coffee. In this county of south-central Kenya, smallholders in cooperatives such as Gikanda, Tekangu and Othaya grow SL28 and SL34 and deliver their cherries to the cooperatives’ factories, and Nyeri lots have scored as high as 96 points with Coffee Review. It is also one of the counties where coffee has lost ground to housing.

The short version

• 9,841 hectares of coffee in 2022, third among Kenya’s counties.
• SL28 and SL34, with Ruiru 11 and Batian.
• Black currant, citrus, flowers and cocoa, with juicy acidity.
• A 96-point Nyeri AA in Coffee Review’s Top 50 of 2025.
• Main crop from late October; fly crop in May and June.

What does Nyeri coffee taste like?

Bright, fruity and deep. Coffee Review rated a Nyeri AA from smallholders, of Batian, SL28, SL34 and Ruiru 11, at 96 points in 2025, its No. 21 coffee of the year: “dazzlingly bright, sweet-tart, and layered”, with black currant, sage, cocoa nib, magnolia, makrut lime and maple syrup, “a classic expression of Nyeri terroir”. A washed SL28 and SL34 lot from the Gikanda cooperative’s Gichathaini factory scored 95, with black currant, pomegranate, pink grapefruit, candied violet and dark chocolate and a “bright, wine-toned acidity”.

How much coffee does it grow?

Measure	Figure	Source
Area under coffee, 2022	9,841 ha (third among counties)	Ministry of Agriculture, via Business Daily
Cherry, year to June 2022	6.82 million kg (third)	Ministry of Agriculture, via Business Daily
Coffee auctioned, first seven months of 2024/25	5,002,412 kg, Sh4.4 billion (second)	Nairobi Coffee Exchange, via The Standard
Coffee auctioned, full 2024/25 season (42 sales)	5.46 million kg, KSh 4.87 billion	Nairobi Coffee Exchange, via Kilimo News
Coffee auctioned, 2025/26 to May (29 sales)	4.08 million kg, KSh 3.71 billion	Nairobi Coffee Exchange, via Kilimo News
Coffee auctioned, 2025/26 to July	4.63 million kg, Sh4.18 billion (third)	Nairobi Coffee Exchange, via The Star

The quality is rising. In 2025/26 the share of Nyeri’s coffee graded AA rose from 26% to 34% and grade C fell from 10% to 5%, lifting the average auction price from US$345 to US$352 a 50 kg bag; the estimated gross return to farmers rose from about KSh 137 to KSh 140 a kilo of cherry, Kilimo News reported. Some societies pay more: in 2025, Njuriga paid Sh172 and Othaya Sh158 a kilo of cherry, the Kenya Coffee Cooperative Exchange said, as reported by The Standard.

Nyeri is among the peri-urban areas, with Nairobi, Thika and Kiambu, where many coffee farms were uprooted for housing over the past decade, USDA says; the trend has slowed with the property market. In 2020, farmers at Nyeri’s Kiawamururu factory were paid Sh102.3 a kilo of cherry for the previous season, the Daily Nation reported.

Cooperatives and factories

Nyeri’s coffee is grown by smallholders and delivered to cooperative factories. Wikipedia lists, among others, Gikanda (the Gichathaini, Kangocho and Ndaroini factories, in Mathira), Tekangu (Tegu, Karogoto and Ngunguru, also in Mathira), Mutheka (Chorong’i, Kihuyo, Kamuyu and others), Othaya, Thiriku and New Gikaru, in Mukurwe-ini. Nyeri lots are sold under these factory names, often with a grade such as AA or AB.

County support

Nyeri passed its own Nyeri County Coffee Act in 2022. In its 2023–2027 development plan the county reports issuing 42,500 coffee seedlings and 676 tonnes of manure, rehabilitating factory drying tables and training young people to prune and spray coffee as a paid service, and sets targets to digitise and upgrade 50 coffee factories over the plan period. The plan gives no current figure for the county’s coffee area or output.

Harvest

Nyeri’s trees flower in January and February, after enough dry stress, and the long rains of March set the berries, the Daily Nation reports. Traditionally the fly crop is picked in May and June and the main crop from the end of October to early January. In 2021, with the seasons shifting, the Gachatha factory found ripe cherries almost all year and picked nearly continuously.

Nyeri and other Kenyan origins

• Coffee in Kenya: the whole country, its varieties and its auction.
• Kirinyaga: another classic county, with even more coffee land.
• Coffee in Tanzania: Kenya’s southern neighbour.