Macadamia and coffee – mixed culture is the trump card

HAND IN HAND partner, LIMBUA, strengthens more than 7,000 smallholder farmers in Africa

Organically grown at the foot of mighty Mount Kenya and certified as being fair: Arabica coffee thrives on the volcanic soils of the mountainside and forms a perfect union with macadamia trees – which not only provide shade but valuable nuts as well. This mixture with other crops strengthens biodiversity, climate resilience and, last but not least, the smallholders’ economic situation – a win-win for everyone.

Incidentally, LIMBUA, a locally-based social enterprise, processes and exports the hard-shelled organic nuts and green coffee alongside other products from the farming families, such as mango or avocado. “A world trip during my studies to social entrepreneurs in 25 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa inspired me to found an organisation with which I personally associate a high degree of meaningfulness,” entrepreneur, Matti Spiecker, emphasises. Together with the Kenyan Anthony Ngondi, he founded LIMBUA – “good harvest” in German – in 2006.

The social enterprise proved to be a success story. And the HAND IN HAND partnership with Rapunzel further strengthens the locals “The fact that the smallholder farmers receive stable prices from us has improved even more, thanks to HAND IN HAND,” Matti Spiecker confirms.

LIMBUA in short

Social enterprise with approximately 700 employees
Processing and export of organic macadamia nuts and organic arabica coffee in the highlands of Kenya
Cooperation with more than 7,000 smallholders, cultivation of coffee and macadamia nuts in mixed cultivation in the regions of Embu and Kirinyaga
Founded in 2006, cooperation with Rapunzel since 2018, HAND IN HAND partner since 2020

Coffee and macadamia nuts thrive particularly well in the subtropical climate of the Kenyan highlands.

Mixed culture in Mount Kenya

The mixed farms of the smallholder families are located at an altitude of 1,500 m, directly on the equator. Despite the proximity to the equator, this altitude ensures a subtropical climate, with cool nights and very warm days. The volcanic, fertile soils here, in the vicinity of Mount Kenya – Africa's second highest mountain – are ideal for organic farming. The climate and soil are very conducive to Arabica coffee’s quality and aroma. In addition, the farmers can do without artificial irrigation, thanks to rainfall of over 1000 mm per year. At the same time, though, it doesn’t rain too much: Arabica coffee prefers to draw moisture from clouds and fog, which, thanks to the cool nights, provide optimal conditions.

Mixed culture of coffee bushes, macadamia trees and other crops characterise the cultivated areas. This reduces the pest load on the individual plant. In addition, the soil is well rooted, and at different depths. Therefore, the farms are more resistant to extreme weather events such as heavy rain with erosion, but also dry periods. This is thanks to the advantageous microclimate in the mixed culture crops.

Benefits arise from biodiversity, as does the smallholder families’ economic situation, who can bring several organic products to the market. LIMBUA also takes avocados from the farmers to produce organic oil, and the company dries mangoes.

Farmer, Eshter Njoki (l.), and her family proudly present a basket of their macadamia harvest.

Mixed culture with coffee shrubs, macadamia trees and other plants.

On average, a family has one hectare of cultivated land. Apart from coffee shrubs and other crops such as bananas, mango, cassava, chilli and pepper, there are about 20 macadamia trees on this land. Besides its nuts, the macadamia tree offers other benefits. Thanks to its thick leaves, it provides shade for other plants and offers protection against evaporation. Its roots prevent erosion and bind water on the surface. Thus, with each tree, the surrounding flora is also promoted, fostering a healthy ecosystem.

The main harvest of macadamia nuts takes place once a year, from February to April. Directly on their farm, the smallholders separate the harvest from the outer, green shell. Shelled in this way, LIMBUA buys the nuts directly from the farmer families, without any middlemen, and processes them for the world market.

The farmers only harvest the ripe, red coffee cherries by hand.

Also, for Arabica coffee, the farming families carry out the first processing steps in a decentralised manner. They pick the coffee cherries by hand – the main harvest is between October and January – and always only the fully ripe ones, thus providing the most aromatic coffee beans. They use the so-called wet process to remove the pulp, i.e., the outer layer, and dry the beans in the sun. LIMBUA then removes the silver skin from the bean and prepares the coffee for export.

LIMBUA still sells the coffee in small quantities. This is because it is a new product for the company – thanks to the demand coming from Rapunzel. For the smallholder families, the cooperation between LIMBUA and Rapunzel fulfils a wish of being able to market the coffee as well.

Processing – adding value locally

LIMBUA verarbeitet die Nüsse vor Ort weiter. Die Transportwege zu den drei modernen, dezentralen Produktionsanlagen am Mount Kenya sind kurz. Damit bleiben nicht nur die Frische sowie die Qualität der Nüsse bestens erhalten. Die Region profitiert außerdem zusätzlich von der fairen Bio-Macadamia. Denn ein Großteil der Mitarbeiter in der Weiterverarbeitung, wo die äußerst harte braune Schale geknackt wird, stammt aus den Bauernfamilien der umliegenden Region. Die Kleinbauern und ihr Umfeld sind somit stark in die Wertschöpfungskette involviert und profitieren größtmöglich von ihr.

Ein großer Anteil der Mitarbeitenden sind Frauen. Die Bezahlung liegt weit über dem Mindestlohn und die Mitarbeiterinnen erhalten zudem Beitragszahlungen in Kranken-, Pflege und Rentenversicherung, was in Afrika nicht selbstverständlich ist.

Qualitätskontrolle: Die geknackten Macadamia-Nüsse werden bei LIMBUA sorgfältig geprüft.

Ein hohes Maß an Technologieeinsatz ermöglicht eine direkte Betreuung und Förderung der Kleinbauern und eine wirkungsvolle Verarbeitung der Macadamia-Nüsse und anderer Erzeugnisse auf den Mischfarmen. Für einige Produktionsschritte setzt LIMBUA allerdings ganz bewusst auf Handarbeit, um den Ertrag und die Produktqualität zu erhöhen, zusätzliche Arbeitsplätze auf dem Land zu schaffen und damit der Slumbildung in Großstädten entgegen zu wirken. Mittlerweile beschäftigt LIMBUA mehr als 500 Mitarbeitende.

Quality control: The cracked macadamia nuts are carefully checked at LIMBUA.

LIMBUA processes the nuts and coffee on site. The transport routes to the three modern, decentralised production facilities on Mount Kenya are short. Not only does this preserve the freshness and quality of the raw materials. The region also benefits from the organic fair-trade products. This is because a large share of the employees in the processing department, where not least the extremely hard brown shell of the macadamia nuts is cracked, come from the farming families of the surrounding region. As such, the smallholder women and their environment are strongly involved in the value chain and benefit from it to the greatest possible extent.

Many of the employees are women. The pay exceeds the minimum wage by far, and the female employees also receive contributions to health, nursing care and pension insurance, which is not a matter of course in Africa.

A high degree of technological input enables direct care and support for the smallholder families and effective processing of macadamia nuts, Arabica coffee and other products on the mixed cultivation farms. However, for some production steps, LIMBUA deliberately relies on manual labour, to increase yield and product quality, create additional jobs in rural areas and, as such, counteract slum formation in big cities. LIMBUA now employs more than 700 people.

LIMBUA’s commitment as a social enterprise

LIMBUA began with a commitment to values. “The important starting point was the question of what a healthy, future-oriented partnership between Europe and Africa could look like,” the founder, Matti Spiecker, explains. “This is how the LIMBUA concept was developed, where as much of the value creation as possible takes place in the smallholder communities.”

LIMBUA covers large parts of the value chain for the organic fair-trade macadamia nuts and Arabica coffee: From the nursery for raising young macadamia trees and coffee bushes, to advising and certifying smallholders on organic farming, buying directly from each individual farmer, running manufactories for top quality processing, exporting the nuts and coffee, and distributing them worldwide.

It all started with a few smallholder families, and now more than 7,000 are part of the project. Regular exchange with smallholder families is essential for LIMBUA. Based on the Kenyan farmers’ data and experience, and together with leading scientists, the company develops particularly high-yielding plants. These seedlings are grown in the company's own nurseries and given to the farmers, for particularly high-quality macadamia nuts.

LIMBUA provides its contract farmers with young plants from its own nursery.

More security, better prospects – that is what LIMBUA's vision brings to the families on Mount Kenya.

A charitable foundation is also part of the “LIMBUA Project”. The LIMBUA Foundation is dedicated to improving the population’s quality of life. Here, LIMBUA's educational commitment in Kenya is bundled to impart knowledge and experience about sustainability in global value chains. To this end, the foundation organises partnerships with local schools and universities as well as educational programmes for smallholder farmers.

LIMBUA makes a targeted contribution to international understanding with social projects such as the WELT:KLASSE foundation and the “macadamiafans” education project. Thanks to learning stays of several weeks in Kenya and the sale of nuts in their own school community, young people from Germany are given a unique opportunity to learn and experience how a global food value chain can be made sustainable.

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Macadamia nuts roasted, salted

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Hero coffee Kenia, ground HAND IN HAND

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Colorful Breakfast Toast

Brioche with macadamia filling