2020 Special Collector Ethiopia – Roba and Family

From our importer, Royal Coffee:

It really starts to feel like summertime when the high grade dry processed coffees from Ethiopia start to land, and this is one of our absolute favorites. We’ve been anticipating its arrival for months. While a washed coffee from the same producer knocked our socks off last month, for many of us here at Royal it would be the arrival of this natural coffee from Bedhatu Jibicho, with its delicate florality layered on top of ripe strawberry, raspberry, and peach notes, that captured our attention. We couldn’t be more thrilled to share it.

Bedhatu Jibicho has become a standard-bearer in Royal’s menu. Not only is the octogenarian Ethiopian among the most experienced coffee farmers we work with, she’s also evolved from cooperative member to exporter, taking full advantage of recently ratified changes to the ECX allowing for improved direct trade. In the past, we’d been able to secure her coffee through a special agreement with the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, in which they held separate, and sold to us directly, lots like that of Bedhatu. However, starting last season, Bedhatu and her neighbors have banded together, with support from her son Tesfaye Roba, using the premiums they’ve received to establish a farmer-owned export company to sell us their coffee independently.

Banko Gotiti is the kebele, or neighborhood, within the Gedeb woreda (district) of the Gedeo Zone. Mostly known by coffee folks for Yirgacheffe town near its center, Gedeo is a funny little appendage that droops south of Sidama, off the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region and into Oromia. Gedeb is Gedeo’s southeastern-most woreda, and Banko Gotiti is the last kebele in the east before the border of the Hambela Wamena district of Guji, within Oromia. Geography in this part of Ethiopia can be a little confusing, compounded by redrawn districts about a decade ago and the expected fluidity of borders in a largely unincorporated agricultural landscape.

All this is relevant, however, because this region is fertile, booming with coffee, and also at the center of regional ethnic conflicts that predate the borders. Ethiopia’s woredas and regions are largely related to ethno-linguistic groups. The Gedeo people are one such group, as are the Oromo people. The Oromo have long been marginalized in Ethiopia, despite their population making up nearly a third of the total number of Ethiopian citizens. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is Oromo, and his progressive policies — well publicized in Western press — have largely overshadowed the threats of displacement, violence, and famine in Gedeb and Guji.

As coffee buyers, ongoing support of the resilience and work of folks like Bedhatu Jibicho can provide a measure of stability in uncertain times. It’s a testament to the fastidiousness and quality of the work undertaken by Bedhatu Jibicho and her family and network that we even have the coffee in the first place, much less that it tastes so incredibly delicious.