Abaya

This coffee comes from the Gelana Abaya washing station near the kebele (village) of Asgori located in the woreda (district) of Abaya.

Gelana Abaya

Local tribe: Tore

Language: Omoromic

Number of producers: 9000–10,000

Annual Production: 100+ containers

Average farm size: 3.5 hectares

Number of mills in the area: 5

Processing: Coffee is covered during the hottest part of the day. Lots of fresh compost used in this area. Composting takes three months

Gelana Abaya is another gem of a region in Yirgacheffe region. This area is nestled between Lake Abaya on the west and the town of Yirgacheffe on the East.

Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.

The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our export partners and their connections with mills and washing stations.

Typically farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.