Ethiopia - Yirgacheffe
Negele Gorbitu Co-operavtive, Yirgacheffe (Ethopia)
Located 400 kilometres south of the capital Addis Abbaba, Yirgacheffe is a town that marks a smaller coffee growing region within the larger Sidamo province. Yirgacheffe is a lush, fertile place. Water is plentiful, which enables the coffee producers to wet-process their beans. Wet-processing as opposed to Dry-processing involves removing the flesh of the coffee cherry and soaking the remaining parchment coffee in water for some 16 - 26 hours to ferment the coffee and remove the sticky residue of the cherry pulp. The coffee is then generally sun dried on large concrete pads or on chicken wire boxes above the ground until the beans are ready for bagging.
Dry-processed coffee is often used where the water is scarce and involves putting the coffee cherries out to dry in the sun immediately after picking. Dry-processed, or sun-dried coffee tends to have sweeter, more musty flavours while wet-processed coffees have a cleaner flavour profile. High grade (2) Yirgacheffe wet processed coffee has great acidity, with numerous high notes of floral, spice and citric tones. The exotic smell and flavour of Yirgacheffe coffee has the ability to transport someone who has experienced Ethiopia back there in an instant.
The Negele Gorbitu co-operative sells its coffee to the international market through the Oromia Coffee Farmers's Cooperative Union in Addis Abbaba. Oromia is made up of 101 individual co-operatives, of which 11 (including Negele Gorbitu) are FLO-certified.
What does Fair Trade mean to Negele Gorbitu?
Producers in the Negele Gorbitu co-operative are currently being paid 3.2 birr per kilogram of coffee cherries, which is the market rate. However, they also receive dividends from Oromia profits (in total farmers receive 50% of Oromia's profits), and a US 5 cent per pound social premium that the Negele Gorbitu co-operative receives. This social premium is paid once a year, and the co-operative members gather in July to decide how the money will be spent.
Recent investments include a medical clinic, and a school. The school has four classrooms, and has dramatically increased the availability of education in the area. Before it was built, the 150 students had to walk 10 kilometres and ford a river to attend classes. The new building has seen the roll grow to 550 students. While the school is still pretty primitive, it is a major step in transforming the futures of the local children.
14 February 2010
Yo Dudes! Got my new album coming out, there is a track and a dedication to Peoples Coffee!! Woo Hoo thanks for powering the recording session!
Reuben Bradley
Fair Trade practices are fundamental to how we run our business. It's one of the reasons we started a coffee business in the first place.
