Lot 20
Lot 20 are made up of coffee producers from around the Kericho and Bomet counties in the southern part of the Rift Valley in Kenya.
Founded in 2019, Lot 20 are passionate about cultivation, fair treatment of farmers, and transparent trade. They work to independently organise and trade their own coffee without the assistance of middlemen.
About Lot 20
Kericho county has a long history of Coffee. In fact, the Kipkelion and Fort Tenan regions actually boast some of the first coffee farms in Kenya, which were originally planted by foreign settlers. Despite this, Kericho county (and by extension Bomet) are not as known for producing coffee as central Kenya, where the Nairobi Coffee Exchange is based.
Lot 20’s work in the region has been to try and organise Kericho and Bomet farmers into properly functioning entities that process and sell coffee independently, so that the region may regain its status as a top producer of coffee.
Lot 20 facts and figures
Region
Kericho and Bomet counties
Latitude
-0.2576
Longitude
35.175
Farming Altitude
1370 - 2080 m.a.s.l
Founders
Fred Langat and Sidney Kibet
Employees
4 permanent staff
Varietals
Ruiri 11, SL28, SL34, K7, Batian
Facilities
Pulping station, Dry mill, Seedling nursery
Established
2019
Lot 20 community projects
The Coffee Nursery
In an effort to support the local community and encourage coffee cultivation as a source of income, Lot 20 has established a nursery alongside their mill in Sossiot.
By donating 50,000 plants to the local community Lot 20 aim to create the opportunity for locals to grow and sell their own crop. Lot 20 also hope to encourage the younger generation to take up coffee farming as a respectable and sustainable form of employment. In fact, their presence in the community already generates seasonal jobs in coffee picking, providing a secondary income to local families.
Water Resources
A core value of Lot 20 is to create water resources for both processing and community use within all their locations.
In Fort Tenan Lot 20 have started to harvest and conserve water from the local spring by bringing in workers to build and maintain a weir (a low damn that controls water levels) across the stream. This has increased the available volume of water to sustain both the local community and Lot 20's operations.
In Cheribo, Lot 20 have just gained a permit to drill a well/borehole in to the earth for a new pulping operation, the development of which is ongoing.
Financial Education
One of Lot 20’s founding principles is that all the people working with them are fairly paid for their produce and labour.
They have also partnered with a local branch of NCBA in Kericho to provide lessons in financial literacy for their workers, who will also gain access to high calibre banking services and NCBA bank accounts with support for mobile banking services.
Mobile services will be particularly useful for generating an audit trail that ensures the farmers are paid the correct amounts for their coffee.
Lot 20 hope that in future years their farmers and partners will be able to access small loans for farm inputs and labour costs because of this education.
