Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

From Red Fox Coffee Merchants (importer)- “Yirgacheffe is a remote community in Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region. It’s home to one of the oldest coffee-growing traditions in the world. To get to Yirgacheffe we have to fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, then take a 30 minute local flight to the city of Hawassa in Sidamo. In Hawassa we drive 4 hours on a paved road until we reach the washing station in Yirgacheffe.

Yirgacheffe’s terrain is rugged and mountainous, so distance to the individual farms depends on where on the mountain they’re located. The closest farms to the city are 20 minutes away by motorcycle and the furthest ones are an hour away.

Most farms have access to dirt roads, so at harvest time producers transport bags of cherry by motorcycle, horse, or donkey to the nearest collection center. The majority of producers here belong to the Gedeo culture and speak the Gedeo language. The traditions of their native culture are still very present in producers’ daily life.”