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Buno Coffee Trading is a relatively small exporter who manage 7 washing stations located in the area of Guji in Ethiopia’s southern region. Very high terroir at well over 2000 masl and an abundance of relatively young, healthy trees whose maturation is gradual, means ideal conditions for producing outstanding cup qualities. Producers in the area grow their coffee around the lush forests on the hills and village outskirts under the shade of indigenous trees like Cordia Africana, Acacia and Albizzia.
Buno was established in 2018 and is managed by Mr.Abiyot who oversees the selection of partner farmers, the processing of cherry and the drying practices. Buno is focused on working with farmers with between 8-15 hectares of land which makes quality improvements easier to manage and ensures that produced volumes of cherry can be separated into single producer micro-lots. To ensure that farmers wait to pick only fully ripened cherries, Buno pays farmers a premium of one birr for every kilo delivered after the harvest. Additionally, Buno provides a credit line to farmers during the off-season for harvest related expenses. The loan is then deducted from their payment upon cherry selection, interest free.
The cherry selection we have witnessed at Buno’s sites are by far the best we have seen in Ethiopia. One of Buno’s sites, Dikitu, has 120 raised beds which is are exclusively for processing natural coffees.
9 farmers contributed to this lot who, on average, have farms 6 hectares in size. The farmgate price paid to them for their coffee was 65-70 Ethiopian Birr per kg of cherry.
Coffee in this area grows under a canopy of native shade trees such as acacia and wanza. The local soil is volcanic fertile red soil and deep sandy loam.
This lot has been processed as a traditional natural, then the cherry are received and floated to remove immature, overripe and floaters, once this process is complete the coffee is simply laid on raised beds to dry for up to 35 days days depending on weather conditions, at first the coffee is spread as thin as a single cherry to promote even drying and avoid any mould formation, the cherries are than gradually stacked up on thicker layers as those are getting drier.
Established in 1967, the "Cooperativa de Caficultores de Anserma" emerged from a shared desire of coffee growers to pool their collective strength and knowledge. This unity was not merely symbolic, but practical, aiming to garner greater value for each associate's coffee crop.
One significant advantage the Coop provides is its Wet-Milling Plant, a haven for smaller growers who lack the infrastructure for their own coffee processing. These growers can deliver their cherries to the Coop and receive fair compensation. This arrangement is made possible by the Coop's natural processing plant, which elevates the quality of the coffee and in turn allows for better payments to the growers.
Boasting an association of 2,083 members, the Coop's crops thrive in altitudes ranging from 1,790 to 2,200 meters. The varieties produced include Castillo, Colombia, and Caturra, with a primary focus on the natural process, although a small amount is fully washed.
The Coop purchases cherries from its associate growers, each cherry undergoing a classification process to determine its use in either natural or fully washed processing, based on its quality. Post-selection, the cherries undergo a cleaning phase, eliminating any unwanted solid particles and washing the cherries.
The cleaned cherries then pass through an optical selection machine. This separates the ripe cherries from the greener ones, the latter being directed towards the washed process coffee, with the best ones assigned to the natural process. The selected cherries are moved to baskets, marking the start of an aerobic process lasting 24-36 hours.
These baskets find their place in a temperature-controlled room. This is an aerobic process in an open basket, allowing the free circulation of oxygen and CO2, which is produced during fermentation. The coffee is then relocated to a mechanical drying system, maintaining a temperature between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius until reaching a moisture level of 10-11%.
Post drying, the coffee is packed in GrainPro bags to stabilise it for 15 days, with each processed batch kept separate to ensure careful management of this phase. The journey ends with the coffee moving to the dry milling plant, ready for the next stage in its story.
Finca Los Angeles is a beautiful 23 manzana planted with only Pacamara farm situated in the Ahuachapán mountain range in the west of El Salvador. This farm is part of the Los Naranjos group headed by Sigfredo Corado a retired professor of Agronomy from the National School of Agriculture. The farm is part of the Renacer Program (Reborn in Spanish) which is a technical coffee field school and educational program for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices. This program is funded by Raices (Roots) and supported by Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador.
The Technical field school which is led by Sigfredo with 6 field technicians to help small to medium producers in the are by focusing on best farm practises that are restorative for the land and soil as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field school is based at the sister farm named Finca Noruega where there is a class held twice a month for the students. Throughout the year there are 3 modules and these look to focus on the 4 R's the program have developed for soil health.
Right Source.
Right Dose.
Right Place.
Right Moment.
This year they have 60 students and at Finca Noruega where the technical school is based the students work the test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms. Finca Noruega is 43 Manzanas planted with a range of varieties from bourbon to gesha.
Los Angeles
This farm is planted only with pacamara and has been under Sigfredo for 10 years. Since he took on the farm they have used no herbicides to help replenish the soil and nutrients to give a good base for growing coffee once again. The farm is broken into 23 Manzanas with approximately 3000 trees in each section. The farm is beautifully divided with shade trees and wind barriers to protect the trees. The farm is managed on a day to day basis by some of the graduates from the technical school as well.
The coffee is selectively harvested and from here it then is taken to the wet mill and drying beds at Beneficio San Rafael located between the two hills of El Pilon and Cerro Aguila at 1450 masl.
Here the Pacamara is washed and floated, after that the cherry gets laid out on drying beds for between 22 - 25 days where it is moved every hour until ready.
Jacinto Lopez has 3 hectares of land in the El Pajal village in San Antonio Huista, which is planted mostly with caturra, but he also grows pache, bourbon and typica.
Most of the picking on his farm is done by himself and his family members and once picked the coffee is processed and dried at his family home.
Jacinto is a member of the ACODIHUE cooperative and is the leader in his community, supporting the coop to recruit more members and train farmers.
Luz Amanda is a 64 year old coffee producer and lives on her farm named Vera Cruz with her husband Horacio. In total on the farm they have around 10,000 trees of the Castillo variety. Each year they produce about 30 bags of green coffee for export. They do all the work on their farm in the season and they have been focusing on improving the quality of their coffees.
To find a small coffee farm like Amanda, you need to get lucky! This is a real gem of a speciality coffee, grown in the remote mountains of Anserma, Colombia. Amanda Ospina and her husband Horacio manage the farm, which was bought from Horacio’s brother in 1979. The couple have two daughters and two sons: one of the sons helps out on the farm; the other children are either at school or university. Since Amanda suffers from back problems, Horacio takes care of all the cleaning work, both inside and outside, as well as doing all the gardening too.
In the harvest they move around the farm selecting ripe cherry and then they pulp and ferment the coffee overnight in a tiled tank for around 12-18 hours. After this the coffee is then dried in an elba that they roll out when it is dry. If needed they also have a small mechanical drier to use if its very wet.
After this the coffee is then taken to the Anserma Cooperative.
Located in Gedeo zone of the Gedeb district, Worka Chelbesa is one of the finest coffee producing areas within the famous Gedeb Woreda. Known for its dense layered semi forest vegetation structure encompassing false banana trees as well as shade grown coffee trees, Chelbesa is a great example of best coffee growing agro-ecology.
SNAP Specialty Coffee built their new wet mill in 2019 in a small hamlet called Danche within the Chelbesa Village with the hope of reaching out to purchasing exclusively red cherries from the nearby farmers in Chelbesa Village. Their ambition became a reality after completion of the project.
The fermentation tanks of the wet mill were built by ceramic which will help bring clarity in the coffee that they process as well as help fasten the fermentation through keep heat inside the ceramic.
This lots it has been put together with the production of 495 smallholders farmers delivering their cherries to the mill, in the area the most common type of soil is red-brown a particularly fertile type rich in iron and with high acidity content.
This particular lot has been processed as traditional natural from the cherry deliveries that constitute the second part of the harvest.
Cherries are received and sorted with the help of a series of floatation tank that separates all floaters and immature, during the process of floatation the cherry gets cleaned and after that they have been placed on the drying beds for a period within 28 to 35 days.