ETHIOPIA
Mr. Alemu Beraso
Mr. Alemu Berasso is one of the earlier settlers of Banco Gotiti. He remembers when government people first introduced coffee farming in the 1960s. He produces around 7000 kg of exportable green coffee from his seven hectares garden style organic farm.
Though most of his trees are now replaced by newer verities, Mr. Berasso proudly shows some of his 40 plus years old coffee trees that are as tall as a two-story building. He mainly kept them for their historical purpose, but he does think those old trees sometimes give more cherries than the younger trees. Coffee is picked as ripe cherry then dry fermented and dried on raised beds for 12-14 days depending on weather.
Small Farmer Project
The Small Farmer Project is the result of an effort to support Ethiopian producers with a marketplace for farm-traceable coffees. In 2020, we purchased our first coffees from a handful of these producers located in Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Guji. This project is made possible in conjunction with Lulo Coffees, an Ethiopian export and coffee development company dedicated to connecting small producers with buyers. Samples are sent out to potential buyers, price is negotiated on the farmers’ behalf, and contracts are only accepted when the producer agrees on a sales price and their name is on the contract for each coffee they sell.
“Our goals with this project would be to help garner and develop long-term relationships between the producers we are already working with and coffee roasting companies that share in the values of transparency, traceability, and relationship that this program represents” says Claudia, green-coffee buyer for Cafe Imports.
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