The Sidama zone is one of Ethiopia's most productive, supplying over 40% of the entire country's washed coffee to its central market. Compared to Yirgacheffe, further south, Sidama is a sprawling and varied landscape that transitions from the Great Rift Valley to beyond 2000 meters in elevation. The Dara "woreda", or district, is one of Sidama's easternmost areas, and one of its highest. Some of the region's best washed coffees are produced here. Dara Washing Station Despite have a robust cooperative presence, Sidama is also home to many independent processors and exporters. The Dara washing station is one of these independent sites, owned and managed by EDN Ethiopia Coffee Export PLC, a private exporter with a handful of processing stations throughout southern Ethiopia. EDN's Dara station is close to the Harenna Forest preserve, a vast preserve that sits at the eastern edge of the Sidama zone. Farmers delivering cherry to Dara average two hectares each and intercrop coffee with food crops and enset, a fruitless relative of the banana tree whose inner pulp is scraped, fermented underground, and toasted as a staple dietary starch. Washed lots at Dara are fermented slowly—24 to 48 hours—due to the low ambient temperatures in the high elevation region and the replenishment of cold groundwater throughout the process. Once fermentation is complete, the wet parchment is washed in long cement channels with fresh water to remove all remaining mucilage. Clean parchment is shade-dried until it reaches 30% moisture content, and then dried in full sun until moisture content reaches a final 11%. After drying is complete the finished parchment is transported to Addis Ababa for final milling and export. EDN Coffee Export PLC The Derikocha processing site is owned by EDN Coffee Export, who manages various sites throughout southern Sidama, Gedeo and Guji zones. EDN’s founder, Michael Gebreselassie, spent many years living in the United States (and working at the Port of Oakland, one of the busiest coffee ports in the country) and watching the popularity of Ethiopia’s coffee continue to grow. Feeling certain that the supply chain could be improved at the farm level, Michael founded EDN in 2018. Despite being a young company, EDN has already begun investigating novel processing equipment and techniques. The company is experimenting with an electronic color sorter for precise cherry selection, something that has existed as a prototype for a number of years but has yet to really penetrate into the producer industry. In addition, the company is working with honey processing and anaerobic fermentation techniques across their processing sites, continuously chasing a portfolio of coffee profiles they believe will best serve their farmers and help the industry achieve new ideals.
