Ethiopia reflections

Since I arrived home on Sunday (sleeping only 4 hours out of 48), I have firstly been trying to get caught up and readjusted to Mountain time, but more importantly, I have been thinking a lot about the trip.  People inevitably ask me how my trip was and what were the highlights.  Truthfully, it is a bit hard to answer these questions, as the trip - especially the drive out to Yirgacheffe and Sidamo - was overwhelming.  The landscape and topography of Southern Ethiopia is beautiful.  The people of Ethiopia are beautiful too, and are plentiful.  I found it hard to comprehend that there were so many people, and people everywhere; on the roads at all times of day, doing all manners of tasks.  There is dramatic poverty, visible hardship, and yet at the same time there is much laughter, hard work, learning and playing.

In terms of coffee, I truthfully barely scratched the surface of what Ethiopia has to offer.  While in Ethiopia I learned that there are literally thousands of varieties of arabica coffee growing wild in the forests.  It is speculated that unique varietals are lost each year, as forests are cut down for agricultural expansion.  I had the opportunity to learn first hand about this, while out for dinner on Saturday evening before leaving for home.  By happenstance, I had the pleasure of meeting Samson Guma who owns both a washing station in the Wollega region, and now has recently purchased a farm in that region as well.  He is an articulate man (having lived in the US for 25 years) and is thoughtful and passionate about Ethiopia coffee.  He is committed to not only growing quality coffee but preserving the forest in which the coffee grows as well.  Samson (or Sammy as he is known by his friends) was the first to have a farmers group - Anfilo Specialty Coffee Enterprise - (ASCE) certified bird friendly coffee by the Smithsonian in Ethiopia.  This group of around 118 farmers when first established, would bring their coffee cherries to Samaon's washing station where the coffee was processed and prepared for export.

In our dinner discussion, Samson informed me that in the 500 hectares or so, where the Anfilo farmers grow their coffee, they talk about 10 - 12 distinct varietals of arabica coffee.  They have their own names for the coffee, based on the taste variation they have grown familiar with.  I was excited about this taste variation and asked Samson whether he would be willing to harvest 5 - 10 lbs of coffee next year from each of these unique growing zones  so that we could cup them and begin to establish micro lots from the Wollega region.  He was excited by the prospect, and I think that the future of my work in Ethiopia is going to be directly related to discovering more amazing washed coffees, and working with local producers to increase both quality and their exposure to the Canadian market.

At the end of the day, the coffee industry in Ethiopia is complicated.  There are so many dynamics at play in terms of the growing, production, and exporting of green coffee.  Currently most domestically sold coffee fetches a higher price than the coffee that is exported. This is a problem.  The newly established ECX was created to both clamp down on corruption, as well as establishing standards for the grading of coffee traded in the country.  The system is still young, and there are still issues at play from my perspective; but I am sure that over the next year or two, things will get sorted out, and begin to operate more efficiently.  One of the challenges still facing roasters in North America is the timely delivery of green coffee from Ethiopia.  Currently it takes too long to get coffee out, once a contract is signed.  We are looking at bringing in around 60 bags of coffee from Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, and realistically, we are hoping to have those coffees on our doorstep by July, which is too long in my opinion.

Having said all of this, I still think Ethiopia has much potential and many opportunities to introduce the world to some amazing coffees — some of which have never been tasted.  What is exciting for me is that I will hopefully get to be a part, albeit a very tiny part, of supporting and encouraging that process.  So on a final note, I want to thank everyone in Ethiopia who made my visit so rewarding, Dante, Abdullah, Tom and his staff, Aylwyn, Avy, Samson, the folks at Aregash lodge, and yes, even our goto cabbie, Teddy.  Until next year....