Producer Profile
Ethiopia Sidamo
From the land where coffee began
A brilliant cup.
This coffee has won every trophy award possible in Ethiopia along with the top Origin Coffee award at 2013 SCAA.
Picture this: coffee plants nestled among cardamom, ginger, and vibrant fruit trees like mangoes and avocados, with sweet potatoes thriving at their feet. Tall acacia and oak trees stand guard, casting protective shadows.
Beneath it all, a rich tapestry of fallen leaves, decaying plants, and a hint of animal manure nourish the soil.
The result? A harmonious, sustainable dance of nature that produces some of the finest coffee you’ll ever taste, all while supporting a biodiverse ecosystem.
Award winning coffee
This coffee is, quite literally, the toast of Ethiopia. It's claimed every trophy the country has to offer, including the coveted Origin Coffee Award at the 2013 SCAA. Truly a wonder, this is the kind of coffee you can sip in any form, from any cup, and feel like you're celebrating something.
From the Oromia Fairtrade Co-Op, this coffee is shade-grown, organic, and delightfully bird-friendly.
Coffee export in Ethiopia
Ethiopia, is the birthplace of all coffee and coffee alone accounts for half of
Ethiopia's export earnings. The Oromia Co-op exports directly to speciality markets bypassing the middlemen and thea Ethiopian coffee auctions, therefore achieving a higher price for its coffee.
Our Sidamo coffee is grown in mountainous, rainforest areas where electricity and running water are rare.
Less than 25% of Ethiopian children complete primary education because farmers cannot afford to pay school fees and buy school uniforms.
Funding the future for real people in Ethiopia
"While in Sidamo, we were shown a school where the Fairtrade
Coop had funded the building of 2 new classrooms. On the opening of the
classrooms fit for approximately 50-60 students each room, around 700 students turned
up to start school.
As we ventured further into the indigenous forest with
strikes of red mud roads and mud slurries on walls of houses with thatched
roofs, another new stone school emerged from the forest. This 2 winged
structure, was also built from Fairtrade funds, along with a fresh potable
water pipe from about 15km away.
A water faucet was installed along the road so as many people as possible had access to fresh drinking water for the first time."
- Wells Trenfield
The growers of Sidamo have used Fairtrade sales and premium to:
Build four primary schools to help farmers keep children in school.
Build two health clinics and two clean water pumps.
Build and repair residential houses.
Purchase livestock for milk and eggs, as a source of on-going income.
Install a soap manufacturing plant to complete a hygiene program.
Recover seeds from heirloom coffee varietals and return them as seedlings to the forest.
A journey with Wells
"The driver spent most time weaving and near missing the
parade of pedestrians of local people flanking the roadside, who seemingly were
on a caravan mission to the other side of darkness.
The whole road was under major repair for four plus hours, so the windscreen was more like a Jackson Pollack painting while the questions went unanswered as where all these people were walking to in the storm black night. My knuckles by now, gleamed white cold braced against the dashboard.
This whole region is peppered with Hyenas, hungry and
leaning towards any roadside meal. So many of the walkers were young women…mostly unaccompanied. My question of how they could possibly protect themselves from the heinous hyenas, was some 20 minutes later answered by..”
they shine a torch light in the eyes of the Hyenas and he runs away” But they don’t have torches I responded.
No answer! "
- Wells Trenfield
Load bearing
Working together to load the coffee onto the trucks, these men can move up to 100kg of coffee on their shoulders.
