🇪🇹 ETHIOPIA DOBENAWICHO SIDAMA

Country: Ethiopia Region: Aleta Wondo, Sidama Producer: Smallholder farms, Dobenawicho Co-op Elevation: 1800masl Cultivar: Heirloom & Local Landraces Process: Washed, dried on raised beds Notes: Peach, Lemonade, Mint, Brown Sugar, Jasmine The Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU) is one of Ethiopia’s largest and best-known exporting organizations. SCFCU is robust; there are 53 member cooperatives in the union and over 80,000 member households throughout the Sidama Zone. Because harvest in Sidama occurs slightly earlier than in the more southern zones of Gedeo and Guji, the fully washed lots from here are usually the year’s very first top quality arrivals from anywhere in Ethiopia. SCFCU coops each carry out activities that often go unnoticed but are crucial for small producers, including training producers in best organic practices and investing in basic infrastructure needs like road improvements and establishing local warehouses. SCFCU focuses on establishing a certification process for local cooperatives, creating micro-credit for producers and investing in social programs on a larger scale. Environmental training programs, healthcare initiatives, life insurance, and educational opportunities are just some of the ways SCFCU strives to improve the quality of life for coffee producers and their families. Farmer members throughout the union are truly smallholders, averaging less than a hectare of coffee cultivation each, in which they also produce vegetables for the household and local sale. Cherry is delivered daily to Dobenawicho where it is sorted, depulped, and fermented for 48 hours in water, which is traditionally replenished multiple times during the fermentation period to ensure clean, white, and contaminant-free parchment. Once fermentation is complete the coffee is moved immediately to raised screen tables for sundrying, where it is rotated constantly for 10-15 days to ensure gradual, even drying.