Few crops are as important and lucrative as coffee. Across the planet people are united by the ‘black gold’, consuming it with their friends, family and at work, often blissfully unaware of where the coffee has come from or what journey it has been on.
But for some people coffee is more than a commodity,
for them coffee is life.
Follow the coffee bean and meet members of a rural Ethiopian community who depend on this humble crop as their only source of income and work day in, day out to achieve the best quality of coffee, with the hope that it will set them apart in a competitive market.
These hard-working farmers are only a few of the 10,000 forest coffee farmers in Ethiopia’s Oromia region that Farm Africa is working with. By providing tools and training in improving coffee quality, productivity, business practices and market integration Farm Africa helps farmers to lift themselves out of poverty.
“Coffee is our life. It’s our health, it’s our food, it’s our clothing, and it’s education for our children… coffee is everything”, explains 67-year-old coffee farmer Mengiste.
Like many people in high altitude areas of the country, picking wild forest coffee is Mengiste’s main source of income, but he struggles to make ends meet. While your morning latte may cost £3 or more, many farmers here earn less than $1 a day.
On a cold winter morning, as you grab a takeaway coffee before work, Mengiste is already busy picking ripe coffee cherries in Ethiopia’s dense forests. Coffee here is only harvested once a year and with it being a critical source of income, it is particularly important to produce the best possible quality to earn enough money to last for the coming year. This is no easy task.
“My children need a lot of financial support from me. It’s a lot to support them with everything: school, food, and clothes. This is tough, and my only source of income is coffee, so this is a struggle.” — Mengiste
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and the world’s fifth largest producer of Arabica coffee beans.
Amazingly it’s also the only place on Earth where coffee still exists wild in Afromontane rainforests, allowing unique coffee varieties to grow and thrive. It’s easy to see the high value of Ethiopia’s wild forest coffee, naturally organic and distinctive in flavour, and its premium attributes make it well suited for local consumption and the export market. But so far, most farmers here haven’t been able to benefit enough from producing it.
In Ethiopia, coffee production methods have been passed down from generation to generation and mirror the old age of forest coffee trees that have been standing for centuries. Passion and wisdom is something Ethiopian coffee farmers definitely have, but many of them lack training in business and marketing skills as well as in effective and sustainable coffee production practices. As a result they are unable to access national and international coffee markets and instead sell their coffee to local traders at a low price.
Farm Africa is supporting farmers to improve their coffee harvesting, drying and storing methods to preserve its unique flavour and to allow them to command a better price at the market. Coffee is hygroscopic in nature, which means it takes on the environment around it. Keeping it in clean and dry conditions off the moist ground is essential to produce premium quality coffee that can attract national or international buyers.
“In earlier times we didn’t know how to harvest, we dried coffee on the floor. Now we have changed the way we process. We dry it on raised beds, and harvest selectively. This will continue and contribute to the quality of our coffee, so we will have access to better markets. I’m passing on my knowledge to my family because I want them to use these new methods too.” — Mengiste
You might drink a cup of coffee in half an hour, but it takes weeks to produce it.
Seventy percent of forest coffee farmers like Mengiste labour hard every day to pick ripe coffee cherries and dry them whole for several weeks until they turn black and contain no more moisture.
Only 30% of coffee farmers in Ethiopia use wet processing, where coffee cherries are pulped and washed before drying. This method sells better as it is clean, ensures more flavour and is less acidic. But in remote places it is impossible for farmers to engage in wet processing, due to the lack of transport to the pulping machines, which are often far away.
The vast majority of coffee farmers here never see their coffee pulped, washed, graded or certified, but instead they sell their dry coffee cherries whole and for a low price. In fact, when farmers like Mengiste say goodbye to their coffee it looks nothing like the coffee we know and love, and often these hard-working farmers don’t get the recognition or financial return they deserve.
“We traditionally sell to local traders who pay us a minimum price. I get 9–15 birr per kg, which isn’t a lot. Once we have access to better markets I hope, my dream is that this will at least double and I will get a minimum of 30 birr per kg.” — Mengiste
15 birr is approx. £0.50 / 30 birr is approx. £1 (April 2016)
But why are farmers struggling to directly sell to high value markets?
Lack of access to tools, machines and capital.
Because most communities harvesting wild forest coffee live in remote areas they often struggle to access the tools they need to pick, dry and store their coffee in the best possible way. Lack of finance available to farmers makes it difficult for them to invest in their businesses.
Lack of coffee production volume.
Most national or international buyers require a large volume of high quality coffee, which individual coffee farmers cannot produce by themselves. That’s why they need to work together as cooperatives and sell their coffee in bulk, allowing them to command higher prices.
Lack of coffee certification.
To fetch higher prices forest coffee needs to be graded to certify it meets quality standards. This can only be done as a cooperative, not an individual, and can open up new markets if the coffee quality is good. Additional certifications can prove quality or sustainable production methods to buyers.
Limited access to markets.
Only when farmers work together as cooperatives and they can assure high quality coffee, high production volumes and an appropriate certification, will their coffee be of interest to high-value markets. If they can’t meet all of these criteria they will remain forced to keep selling their coffee locally for a low price.
Will you help Ethiopian coffee growers earn more from their beans?
Farmers like Mengiste labour hard every single day to harvest some of the most exclusive varieties of coffee and they are hopeful that all their hard work will pay off and people like you will be able to drink their coffee with your morning breakfast.
Mengiste and his community are already embracing the new harvesting and storage techniques they have learnt in training conducted by Farm Africa, but more of these sessions will expand their business and marketing skills, ensuring that one day the whole community will be able to get a fair price for their premium coffee and sell it to reliable markets in Ethiopia and across the world.
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