{"id":59212,"date":"2025-04-17T14:46:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:dev.cafeimports.com\/blog\/?p=59212"},"modified":"2025-04-18T06:07:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T11:07:45","slug":"2025-ethiopia-reportage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/north-america\/blog\/2025\/04\/17\/2025-ethiopia-reportage\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Ethiopia Reportage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Devon Barker and Victor Pagan<\/h3>\n

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The<\/span> emphatic chanting of a preacher shepherding his flock echoes off the hum of the evening call to prayer at the mosque on the hill. A strange counterpoint to the snap and crack of branches bending to the weight of colobus monkeys playing tag in the canopy overhead. They <\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span> dancing <\/span>goats,<\/span> but they do seem a little more energetic than usual.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s<\/span> the tail end of a marathon day<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> taking in and learning from the farmers, producers, technicians, and experts <\/span>who <\/span>are currently tasked with <\/span>maintaining<\/span> the legacy of <\/span><\/span>the<\/span><\/span> origin of coffee. Quite a tall order.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re<\/span> joining <\/span>me and Victor<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Pagan <\/span>in <\/span>the <\/span>southern Oromia<\/span> region<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> and <\/span>you may recognize <\/span>the names of a few<\/span> places <\/span>we\u2019re<\/span> visiting <\/span>here: <\/span>Sidama<\/span>, <\/span>Yirgacheffe<\/span>, <\/span>Guji<\/span>, <\/span>and <\/span>Gedeo<\/span>. <\/span>We\u2019re<\/span> on a week-long mission to talk with some farmers who are part of the Single Farmer Project, stopping at washing stations to learn about their operations and innovations<\/span>,<\/span> and collecting media for our <\/span>Beanologies<\/span> along the way<\/span>.<\/span> It\u2019s<\/span> my first time in Ethiopia, and I brought <\/span>all<\/span> the starry-eyed deference one expects <\/span>from <\/span>a coffee nerd making the pilgrimage.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Long before the beverage we know, the berries of <\/span>coffea<\/span> arabica were used as a staple food in Ethiopia<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span> Ground up and mixed with clarified butter (ghee) and rolled into a ball, the mixture was a perfect revitalizing snack for workers in the field, travelers on a long journey, <\/span>or<\/span>, as lore has it, later by those with heavy eyelids who needed to stay alert during evening prayer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> By the 14th century, coffee’s use as a stimulant was a part of everyday life, and people were experimenting with other ways to consume it.<\/span> These early cultural uses set the stage for coffee<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span>s social and spiritual role in Ethiopian society\u00b9<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward a couple hundred years\u00a0<\/span> (please excuse me for skipping some major historical events in this time; the history here could fill volumes)<\/span>, and coffee had spread to Yemen, where the conquering Ottoman Turks began to build supply chains to support the proliferation of coffee houses popping up in the Middle East, Asia, and soon Europe, with coffee blended from Ethiopia and the surrounding regions.\u00a0<\/span> Cafe culture was taking shape, and as they say, the rest is history, with the early coffee economy developing as colonization drove plantation-style farming <\/span>far and wide<\/span> to many of the coffee-growing countries we know today\u00b2<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, coffee growing and consumption in Ethiopia remained unchanged for much of the late 18th and early 19th century.<\/span> It was still grown as a sustenance and cash crop in backyard <\/span>gardens,<\/span> while drinking it became segregated along religious lines. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had banned coffee consumption among Christians, viewing it<\/span> with suspicion as a Muslim drink. Coffee\u2019s use was <\/span>largely confined<\/span> to Islamic communities (for instance, in the cities of Harar and Jimma) and was associated with Sufi rituals and <\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>everyday social life of Ethiopian Muslims<\/span>.<\/span> This changed dramatically in the late 1800s under Emperor Menelik II. Recognizing coffee\u2019s importance, Menelik II (who ruled 1889\u20131913) took bold steps to integrate coffee into the national culture and economy. He openly drank coffee in public, effectively ending the church\u2019s taboo and signaling that coffee was acceptable, even patriotic, for all Ethiopians. <\/span>With the support of Abuna <\/span>Matewos<\/span> (the head of the Orthodox Church<\/span> at that time<\/span>), Menelik <\/span>allayed<\/span> clergy fears about<\/span> the consumption<\/span> <\/span>of <\/span><\/span><\/span>coffee, framing it not as a Muslim vice but as a unifying beverage for the <\/span>empire<\/span>\u00b3.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A new chapter.<\/h2>\n

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The wall of awards proudly on display.<\/span><\/span>
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A wisp of smoke rises from the fire as the Jebena (the traditional coffee carafe) is sent around the room again. The earthen walls glint with medals and awards from the light of a nearby door, and Mr. Zelelu laughs as I attempt to pantomime that I do<\/span>,<\/span> in fact<\/span>,<\/span> like kocho, a bread made of fermented enset fibres and staple food in rural Ethiopia. Mr. Zelelu proudly passes us his guest book<\/span>,<\/span> opened to a page from 2013, when Jason (CEO – Cafe Imports) visited and left his mark, not just in this book but on the early stages of what has now developed into the Single Farmer Project (check out this deep dive on the project<\/a>). A lot has changed in the coffee trade around here in the last 30 years. To understand just how drastic this has been, we need to delve a bit into the history that led us to Mr. Zelelu\u2019s doorstep.<\/span><\/p>\n

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During the Derg regime (1974\u20131991), the state tightly controlled coffee marketing. Production was nationalized<\/span>,<\/span> and farmers were required to sell coffee to the government at fixed (subsidized) prices. Facing uncertainty of their land rights, producing excess for the market and quality were disincentivized<\/span>,<\/span> and private trading or exporting was essentially prohibited under this centralized system. But coffee was still an economic lifeline, forcing the government to maintain exports by any means to earn much-needed foreign currency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At these auctions, exporters (now privately licensed companies) would bid on lots graded by the Coffee Liquoring Unit (a quality control body) but could only see origin and grade info. This traditional auction system ensured coffee quality oversight but also meant traceability to specific farmers was limited, as coffees from many farms were blended by region. But it was a step in the right direction with Ethiopia\u2019s coffee, once mostly a bulk commodity, starting to be marketed by region and even micro-region, highlighting its diverse terroir.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dry parchment being consolidated into bigger station specific lots. <\/span>Coffee still in parchment bagged and tagged before making the journey to Addis Ababa for final screening and sorting.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
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A major turning point came in 2008 with the creation of the Ethiopian Commodity <\/span>Exchange<\/span> (ECX). The <\/span>ECX replaced the old auction system with a modern trading floor intended to improve efficiency, standardize grading, and speed up payments<\/span> for all agricultural <\/span>product<\/span>s<\/span><\/span>\u2074<\/span><\/span>. By 2009, coffee trading was integrated into the ECX, which required most producers to sell through designated ECX markets. While <\/span>the <\/span>ECX brought faster payments and price transparency, it also initially stripped away detailed origin traceability since <\/span>coffee<\/span> w<\/span>as<\/span> pooled by region and quality grade<\/span>.<\/span> International<\/span> buyers of specialty coffee raised concerns that they could no longer trace Ethiopian coffees to specific micro-regions or estates, potentially lowering the value of unique origin coffees<\/span>. <\/span>This pride amongst farmers of <\/span>the coffee<\/span><\/span>–<\/span><\/span><\/span>growing areas we know and love today is <\/span>marked <\/span>by border controls along the roads<\/span> that pass through. These<\/span> makeshift <\/span>screening <\/span>points check <\/span>vehicles and <\/span>ensure<\/span> coffees from one region <\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span> mixed and exported as produced in another.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A moto passes <\/span>under a border checkpoint between <\/span>Gedeo<\/span> and <\/span>Sidama<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
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Notably, some exceptions to ECX existed: cooperative unions (federations of farmer cooperatives) and large estate farms were allowed to bypass the ECX and export directly under certain conditions even before 2008. These exceptions acknowledged the importance of direct relationships for specialty coffee, even as most of the sector (around 88%) remained within the ECX system.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By the mid-2010s, Ethiopia\u2019s government recognized the need to reform the coffee marketing and licensing system further to remain competitive globally (partially driven by a trademark battle with Starbucks\u2075<\/span>, but that\u2019s another tale). In 2015, the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority, now generally called the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA), was re-established to strengthen oversight and development of the coffee sector. The pivotal moment came with the Coffee Marketing and Quality Control Proclamation No. 1051\/2017, which aimed to \u201cliberalize\u201d the coffee trade and introduced the possibility of widespread vertical integration.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective in 2017, and just in time for Claudia Bellinzoni (Cafe Imports \u2013 Senior Green Buyer for Ethiopia) to revitalize the Single Farmer Project. This law ended the absolute requirement that all private coffee exports go through the ECX.\u00a0 Private coffee processors, smallholders, and cooperatives could vertically integrate for the first time, handling the export themselves rather than relying on middlemen or the ECX. This dramatic reshaping of the licensing landscape carved out new roles and ways of doing business:<\/span><\/p>\n

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