About Ropen
Who we are
A Kenyan establishment specializing in coffee farming, and processing/manufacturing of both alcoholic and Non-alcoholic beverages.
Our divisions
Four arms, one company
Coffee Farming & Processing
Njagũ Farm in Kiambu , our specialty coffee farm, rehabilitated since 2023 and producing single-origin SL28, SL34 and Ruiru 11 traceable to the tree.
Ropen Winery
Home of Banny’s Dry Banana Wine , culturally inspired, deeply rooted, and made from fruit that would otherwise have been wasted.
Bansoko Centre
Where we promote use of the entire banana plant , extracting, drying and dyeing banana fibre, and working with artisans to produce eco-friendly bags, packaging and artifacts.
TerraNova Coffee (USA) LLC
Our USA-registered affiliate, through which Kenyan specialty coffee reaches the American market under fair-trade terms.
How it started
Bananas hanging in the compound, and hunger in the house
After distributing many banana suckers across various areas of Kiambu while serving as the Women’s Representative, and after the trees matured and began fruiting, the subsequent banana-fruit glut brought low prices and waste. It became apparent that fruit alone could not bring the economic empowerment that had been envisaged.
Visiting homes and witnessing hunger, and lack of basics like sugar, yet bunches of bananas hung about in the compound, made me embark on a journey of more meaningful value addition , one that would not only address the banana glut and post-harvest losses, but also the utilisation of the entire banana plant.
That is the through-line of everything here: take what the land already produces in surplus, and add enough value to it that a farming family is better off.
Bansoko Centre
The whole plant, not just the fruit
At Bansoko Centre we promote utilisation of the entire banana plant. We provide machinery to extract banana fibre from banana stems. The fibre is then dried and dyed as necessary.
Some fibre is baled and packed into 15kg bales for onward processing into finer fabrics. The extraction and weaving process requires very low power consumption.
Artisans are engaged to produce various banana-fibre artifacts, and to produce and supply eco-friendly bags and packaging material , including the woven carriers our wine ships in.
What we hold to
Four things we do not compromise on
Waste becomes value
Overripe fruit that would have rotted, and stems that would have been burned, become wine, fibre and packaging.
Traceable to source
Our coffee is single-origin and traceable to the farm it grew on; every wine batch carries its own reference on the label.
Low impact by design
Solar power, minimal spraying with approved organics, organic manure, and recyclable or biodegradable packaging throughout.
The women who planted it
Part of our coffee proceeds supports aged women welfare programmes in the local communities, in honour of those who established these farms.
Everything we make is on sale online
Banny's banana wine and single-origin Njagũ Farm coffee, side by side. Pay with M-Pesa.