Ethiopia Natural Kochere Banco Gotete Natural

Description

Income from coffee is important but minimal for most farmers due to the small size of their farms. As such, inputs are minimal–most coffee grown in the region is 100% organic, though not certified, as the government restricts the chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. Legu trading tries to help with this situation by offering a premium price and by hiring as many individuals as possible in their mills and facilities. The company hires at least 300 people year-round and up to 600 in the high season. All workers are paid a fair wage and receive full, 8 hour workdays. Coffee is selectively hand-picked before being delivered to collection points, usually within 10 km of the producer’s homes. Great care is taken upon delivery to separate out any overripe, underripe or damaged beans before consolidating with other lots for the road to the wet mill. At least once a day, the collected coffee cherry is delivered to the mill, where it is sorted and then delivered to dry on African beds under a canopy. Once here, the parchment is turned regularly and protected from hot sun. If the climate is mild it may be delivered to the beds to dry under the sun. Here it will stay for around 23 days until it reaches the optimal humidity, at which point it is bagged and rested. Varieties of coffee grown here are traditionally referred to as ‘heirloom’ by exporters–a catch-all terminology which often masks the wide assortment of varieties that may be present within various regions…even, within farms. Many of these varieties will have been developed by Ethiopia’s JimmaAgricultural Research Centre (JARC), which, since the late 1960s, has worked to develop resistant and tasty varieties for the Ethiopian coffee industry and also to provide the agricultural extension training needed to cultivate them. The dual factors of Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)forced anonymisation of lots(see below) combined with the relatively low awareness of formal variety names outside Ethiopia has meant that the JARC’s work has historically been under-recognised by specialty importers and roasters,