Ethiopian Yirgacheffecoffee beans express floral and citrusy notes with a sweet finish.The beans are medium roasted to allow the wonderful flavours to shine through.

Produced by theOromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union in Ethiopia.

Fairly Traded organically produced coffee beans

227g

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Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union - Ethiopia

The Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union (OCFCU) was founded in June 1999. They are the largest Fair Trade coffee producer in Ethiopia. The co-operative was given permission from the government to become a direct exporter of its members coffee. This means they bypass the central auction and hence are giving more control and market share to the coffee producers.

Oromia has a total of 34 member co-ops - with a total of 22,743 farmers. Eight of these co-ops currently export under FLO conditions - exporting 947MT of Fairtrade coffee in 2017. The region where their coffee is grown covers a massive 40% of Ethiopia, found in the central, western, eastern and southern areas of the country. The co-operatives cultivate an area of around 163,192 hectares; of which nearly 1/3 is organic (50,692 hectares).

With the co-operative being allowed to exclusively deliver their coffee by bypassing the coffee auction, they are enabled to control and maintain their own standards of quality throughout the whole process.

Oromia coffee farmer:

AGRICULTURE METHODS

Traditionally agrochemicals were never used; instead environmentally sound methods, which developed over generations, have thrived. All of their coffees are grown in the shade amongst acacia and oak trees. Fallen leaves and decaying plant matter, along with animal manure, help to enrich the soil naturally.

Coffee bushes are intersplanted with plants such as cardamom, ginger, papaya, mangoes and avocadoes, and even root crops such as sweet potatoes. This intercropping helps to enhance the fertility of the soil, further enriching this already chemical free area, aswell as providing diversity for the growers.

The growers receive agricultural advice - such as on pruning, picking, handling/processing and the storing of the coffee. This helps to improve the quality standard. Thiss assistance is given from government agricultural and co-operative bureau and Union level that have over 20 years experience in this field.

FAIR TRADE INVESTMENT

Revenue from these Fairtrade sales have allowed the co-operative members to purchase two of their own washing stations, and the Oromia co-op has developed a fund for the repair of de-pulping machines. This helpds to safeguard the organisations capacity to produce high quality, washed Arabica coffee.

The co-operative provides ongoing educational assistance to its members, including workshops on composting the by-products of coffee production and utilising shade trees and natural fertilisers to enrich their soils.

WHAT TYPE OF COFFEE

Oromia grow six different types of coffee beans:

Yirgacheffe a medium bodied, tart acidity, floral aroma
Sidammo pleasantly sweet, balanced acidity
Limu balanced flavour, good acidity, medium body
Lekemptl light acidity, rich, balanced cup
Jima andHarrar uniquely fruity, spicey flavour, medium acidity, heavy body.

Equal Exchange was the original company in the UK to become la icensed distributors of Yirgacheffe coffee, when trademarks covering these coffees were established in 2007. The Ethiopian Coffee and Trademarking Intitiative aims to develop the Ethiopias coffee industry and keep more of the value of its internationally-renown coffees with farmers and their communities.

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Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans - 227g - Fair Trade