ETHIOPIA genji challa # 16
General Information
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Origin: Ethiopia
Region: Gera, Jimma Cooperative: Nano Challa Washing Station: Genji Challa Farmers: 600 active members (246 female, 354 male) Cultivar: Gibirinna 74110 & Serto 74112 Altitude | Latitude: 1900 masl | 7º North Process: Washed with a single wet fermentation and sun-dried on African beds Harvest: November 2022 - January 2023 Cherry Price | FOB Price: 5.59 USD/kg | 8.60 USD/Kg Screen | Moisture | Density: 14+ | 11.3 % | 0.706 g/ml Packaging: 60 Kg + GrainPro Score: 86.8 Notes: Sugar cane, vanilla, jasmine, mandarin orange |
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TRACEABILITYWe are delighted to bring you another stunning coffee from Ethiopia, this time called Genji Challa. Genji Challa is a wet mill that is part of the Nano Challa cooperative in the town of Gera, Agaro. It is only 3 km from the Nano Challa cooperative, and between them, they have increased the number of farmers to over 600 members this year. The doubling of the wet mills allows the cooperative to better serve members by increasing its capacity and outreach. Access to these stations has allowed farmers to choose between natural and washed processing, expanding their opportunities in the global specialty coffee market.
The cherries are sourced from the surrounding kebeles (neighbourhoods) and the lots are named after the kebeles in which the coffee is grown. The cherries delivered to the station are a combination of Gibirinna 74110 and Serto 74112. Both are from the Metu Bishari selections made in the forest of the same name in the Illubabur area by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) in 1974. They were specifically selected for their resistance to coffee berry disease. Genji Challa is equipped with a Penagos 5000 ecopulper and, once the coffee is washed, it is transferred to a drying table where it rests for a single day before being transferred to raised beds to finish drying in the sun over an average of 10 days. Both stations are at an altitude of just under 1,900 metres, and the farm members grow coffee at 2,000 metres above sea level. The cooperative was formed as part of an initiative to help farmers in a more general way. The programme was administered by a non-governmental organisation that not only coordinates agronomists and managers for each of the cooperatives it works with, but also has a business advisor assigned to help the cooperative manage its debt, reinvest in quality improvements in the mill, and verify the distribution of income to all members. They have since "graduated" from this programme and are now part of the Kata Maduga Union that assists the cooperatives in functions such as marketing, exporting and general international representation. COFFEE IN ETHIOPIAEthiopia is an extraordinary and complex origin, probably the most complex. It is also a diverse and dispersed workplace. One must invest a lot of time in travel, cuppings and research, to collect lost bits of information and try to understand its coffee industry, through its culture, history, geography, economy and politics.
Coffee is so important to Ethiopia that it alone supports the Trade Balance of a country with more than 100 million inhabitants. It is the main source of foreign currency income, reaching record sales of USD 917 million in 2018. In addition, it is estimated that 15 million people depend directly on coffee production to survive. Since Ethiopia's economy is highly dependent on imports, its trade balance is permanently negative, this means that there is a constant deficit of dollars in the fiscal and private coffers. For this reason, there are many actors not related to the coffee industry involved in it, and many others wanting to join. Approximately 40% of the export price is lost in the hands of unnecessary intermediaries, in the production and logistics process. Since 2017, the coffee industry in Ethiopia has allowed direct sales to importers through washing stations. Before, everything had to be traded through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). The ECX is equivalent to the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, but inefficient and poorly organized; where batches are mixed across large production areas and therefore traceability and quality are generally lost or degraded. 90% of Ethiopian coffee is produced by small coffee growers, who deliver their cherries to the washing stations closest to their farms. These washing stations are organized in two ways, either they are bought by private agents or they are grouped in cooperatives. The private agents are exporters and the cooperatives are again grouped in Unions, which function as an “umbrella” organization, providing support in important areas of marketing, production, financing and logistical support. At Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees we work only with Cooperative Unions, and not with private agents. This means that we have access to first-hand information when cupping and selecting lots, transparency regarding the costs and finances of the Union, more traceability, fewer unnecessary intermediaries and we generate a greater socioeconomic impact for the coffee grower and their communities. VARIETIES AND HEIRLOOMAccording to the Cambridge dictionary, the word "Heirloom" has the following meanings:
1.- valuable object that the older members of a family have given to the younger members of the same family for many years. 2.- a fruit, plant or seed of a type, which has existed for many years. An "Heirloom" variety is a plant variety that has a history of transfer within a family or community, similar to the generational exchange of heirloom jewellery or furniture. From a macro botanical point of view, an Heirloom variety must be open pollinated. The Arabica species is a self-pollinated crop, therefore, from a conceptual point of view, the term "Heirloom" does not apply to the Arabica species. For many years in the coffee industry, the word Heirloom has been used in Ethiopia, as a generic term to describe a variety or group of unknown cultivated varieties of a particular lot, farm or region, which over the years has been planted and passed from one coffee producer to the next. Ever since the specialty coffee movement began to grow around the world, there was an obvious need for traceability and information. Although the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) has been working since the 1970s on research and development of new varieties, importers have had limited access to this information to describe the varieties of the coffees they were buying from Ethiopia. Today, thanks to professionals like Getu Bekele and more, who have been studying the wild and cultivated varieties of Ethiopia for decades, we can recognize and differentiate two large groups of Ethiopian coffee varieties: the regional varieties and the varieties improved by the JARC. We can say that there are between 6,000 and 10,000 regional varieties and the JARC has developed around 60 improved varieties, which have been distributed among coffee growers throughout the country. These improved varieties address the problems of CBD, rust, cup quality and yield, and today they are widely used in all coffee growing regions of Ethiopia. For example, if we analyse the Jimma region, we can learn that the improved varieties of the area belong to the 1974/75 Metu Bishari selection, where we find the varieties: 74110, 74112, 74140, 74148 and 74165. The regional varieties found in this area they include: Kuburi, Bedessa, Yawan and Dalacha, among others. Each coffee region in Ethiopia today has a completely specific set of improved varieties and regional varieties, adapted to the unique conditions of each area. |
WASHED V/S NATURAL
GENJI CHALLA CWS LOCATION
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