BUILDING IMPROVED DRYING FACILITIES

The first time we worked with this cooperative, it was clear that the drying facilities were a real issue. CARICO built ‘raised African drying beds for cooperative in 2018 and this made a big difference to yield and quality the following harvest. Sun-drying places no carbon footprint on coffee processing unlike other automated processes.

The photos below show the new beds being constructed and the second a woman drying beans. Coffee was previously dried on mats (as it cannot be hung) by farmers until they could get their harvest to the cooperative. With increasingly unpredictable weather makes this method unreliable.