Sibu Coffee Exporter PLC’s processing site is in Guracho village, in the district of Kercha, on the western side of Guji, very close to Gedeb in the southern Gedeo zone. The station is operated by Keder Hassen Aredo, who himself was born in Kercha Town. Keder is 45 with 9 children and inherited much of his processing knowledge from his father. At 20 years old Keder began working for himself and has been buying and processing coffee ever since. The site is massive by the standards of any region in Ethiopia, let alone Guji: there are 14 fermentation tanks, 600 drying tables and the operation is staffed by up to 500 seasonal workers during harvest. There is guest lodging for visitors to the remote location, which is common considering the site is one of the largest in southern Ethiopia. In addition to the 2500 smallholders who deliver fruit to the station, Keder Hassen Aredo’s business owns and operates a large nearby estate, whose entire crop is processed here. There are few entrances to Guji--a remote and heavily forested swath of land stretching southeast through the lower corner of the massive Oromia region--and none of these routes are short, or for the queasy, in any way. Guji is heavy with primary forest thanks to the Guji tribe, a part of Ethiopia’s vast and diverse Oromo nation, who have for generations organized to reduce mining and logging outfits where they can, in a struggle to conserve the land’s sacred canopy. Compared to other coffee-heavy regions, large parts of Guji feel like prehistoric backwoods. The majority of the zone can be a full day’s drive (and many days’ walk) from the nearest trading centers of Gedeb or Dilla to the west, which leaves many coffee farmers debilitated by lack of access to market, and cherry prices often less than half of neighboring Gedeo or Sidama zones. The gorgeous arabica genetics of this area, blessed by some of the country’s healthiest biodiversity, is often ruined in transit, or commodified and blended into lower grades as a result of the difficult geography, and one way or another rarely gets a fair showing in the market. Famers have historically survived the access disadvantages by having larger, more diversified parcels, often 20 acres or more, with equal emphasis on livestock or other crops for local markets as on coffee. But the vast majority have always been small—2-4 acres only. Were it not for groups like Sibu, who have been investing in the area (and individuals like Keder) for over 20 years, growers in nearby Kercha would have as their only option the sporadic, rogue coffee collector from Gedeo or farther, bringing rock bottom prices and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. The processing station in Guracho is most definitely an exception to the status quo for small farmers in Guji. The operation is not only an important island of commerce in remote Kercha district, but it also subsidizes local sewage systems in the area schools, as well as providing interest-free loans the farmers from which it buys cherry, to help farms through the traditionally cash-strapped picking and pruning months. So, it supports not just a cash center for farmers, but an important local ecosystem, by and for the local people.
