Kefalech Tariku, Ethiopia

This Grade 1, single-farmer natural microlot was produced by Kefalech Tariku, a female producer from Chelchele, Gedeb District (Gedeo Zone). Kefalech, a mother of five, farms 1.4 hectares of land at an altitude of 2,080m above sea level and grows the traditional sub-varieties of Kumie, Diga and Wilsho.

Gedeb is a ‘kebele’ (neighbourhood) and town in the Gedeo Zone, SNNP region of southern Ethiopia. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to more species of coffee plants than anywhere else in the world, many still growing wild and others yet to be discovered. All Ethiopian coffee is Arabica and at least 150 varieties are grown commercially. Traditionally these have simply been labelled as “traditional varietals”, however this is changing as the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre works to identify species. Although there are some large plantations in Ethiopia, 95% of coffee is grown by smallholders in a wide variety of environments including “coffee forests” where coffee grows wild and is harvested by local people. All Ethiopian specialty coffee is grown above 1200m and most above 1800m. In the highlands of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, coffee can grow above 2,100 meters above sea level.

Coffee is ancient in Ethiopia, but its cultivation is not. By the late 9th century coffee was actively cultivated in Ethiopia as a food, but probably not as a drink. It was the Arab world that developed the brewing of the drink. Even when coffee became an export for Ethiopia in the late 19th century, Ethiopian coffee was the result of picking rather than agricultural practices. A hundred years ago, plantations, mainly in Harar, were still the exception, while “Kaffa” coffee from the southwest was still harvested wild. In 1935, William Ukers wrote: “Wild coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, coming from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in the wild. The trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, with a minimum of picking labor, is practically unlimited. It is said that in southwestern Abyssinia there are immense forests which have never been invaded except on the outskirts.”