ETHIOPIA SIDAMA 3 NATURAL FT ORGANIC – OPEN – 30701 – Ecotact Bags – April 2023 Shipment – RCWHSE

Coffee Background

The climb from the southern end of the Great Rift Valley, through Shashamene and past Awasa is gradual, and coffee trees slowly increase in frequency, large, lanky, and dusty by the roadside, many so tall they lean on the roofs of houses for support. Coffees produced in Sidama are earlier than in the far south, delicate, and citric. Sidama has one of the most exemplary cooperative unions in the country, as well as a thriving industry of independent washing stations and medium-sized family estates with export licenses of their own. 

The Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU) is one of Ethiopia’s largest and best-known exporting organizations. SCFCU is robust; there are 53 member cooperatives in the union and over 80,000 member households throughout the Sidama Zone. Because harvest in Sidama occurs slightly earlier than in the more southern zones of Gedeo and Guji, the fully washed lots from here are usually the year’s very first top quality arrivals from anywhere in Ethiopia. SCFCU coops each carry out activities that often go unnoticed but are crucial for small producers, including training producers in best organic practices and investing in basic infrastructure needs like road improvements and establishing local warehouses. SCFCU focuses on establishing a certification process for local cooperatives, creating micro-credit for producers and investing in social programs on a larger scale. Environmental training programs, healthcare initiatives, life insurance, and educational opportunities are just some of the ways SCFCU strives to improve the quality of life for coffee producers and their families. Farmer members throughout the union are truly smallholders, averaging less than a hectare of coffee cultivation each, in which they also produce vegetables for the household and local sale.  

Only select cooperatives within SCFCU regularly produce natural process coffees. In their case, cherry is delivered daily to SCFCU’s coop washing stations where it is sorted and immediately placed on raised beds to dry in the sun, most often in a single layer. Each washing station employs a large staff, sometimes 150 people or more, to oversee the constant maintenance of drying parchment or cherry. Once fully dried and cured, dry natural are de-hulled locally and then transported to Addiss Ababa, where the final milling takes place prior to export.