Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region is one of the best-known coffee-growing areas in the world. Like the rest of Ethiopia, it’s divided into several woredas (districts) and kebeles (communities) with washing stations throughout—each offering unique terroir. The Gedeb woreda is one of them, and within it lies the Gotiti kebele.
Farmers here transport their coffee via mule or on foot to the washing station in Gotiti.
This coffee pulping station is established on 2.5 hectares of land and started the operational in 2023 and the total volume of coffee processed annually is between 500–600 ton of clean bean.
The washed coffee processing method involves washing, pulping, fermenting, and drying coffee beans.
After processing the coffee is store safely to keep and preserve the quality of the parchment until it is moved to the dry mill.
Fully dry parchment is packed in bags and either moved to the parchment store or bulked in conditioning bins.
To maintain the quality of coffee, the washing station process coffee depending on the specific area. To achieve this, when they collect red coffee, the name of the supplier, the place where the coffee came from, the amount of coffee will be recorded. 868 farmer delivere red cherry to the washing station.
The people of Gotiti belong to the Gedeo cultural tradition and speak various dialects of the Gedeo language. Their main income source is coffee, which they grow on very small farms ranging from 0.1 to 2 hectares. Many intercrop with false banana trees and acacias as shade for the coffee trees. Although formal fertilizer use is rare in this area, acacia trees are leguminous and fix nitrogen in the soil.
Life isn’t easy for Gotiti producers, but they still have a lot working in their favor. They live in a gorgeous, communal village within a very lush forest. This forest, the altitude of the area, and the indigenous varieties that grow here create the perfect environment for smaller, tastier coffee beans with distinct, elegant, and floral profiles.
There are still producers in Gotiti who value coffee and want to preserve their ancient agricultural knowledge for generations to come. Those in the area who want to persevere in coffee find enthusiastic buyers for their elite product at Red Fox.
