Description

The Worka Cooperative in Worka operates the Halo Fafate Washing Station in Yirgacheffe, which serves around 900 smallholder farmers in the area. Coffee is typically grown on small garden-size plots and is used to supplement a family’s income in addition to being grown for personal use. At this washing station, coffee is delivered in cherry form by producers, and it will be dried on raised beds. Coffees are then separated into “lots” of 150 bags of parchment coffee. Coffees in Ethiopia are typically traceable to the washing station level, where smallholder farmers—many of whom own less than 1/2 hectare of land, and as little as 1/8 hectare on average—deliver cherry by weight to receive payment at a market rate. The coffee is sorted and processed into lots without retaining information about whose coffee harvest is in which bag or which lot.

For more information about coffee production in Ethiopia, visit our Ethiopia page.