CAFOD blog

We are sponsoring a coffee quality competition with the Amaro coffee growers co-operative. The aim is to provide some incentive for farmers who have followed the quality coffee preparation training done by Agri Service (including designing a farmer’s manual – see picture).

The quality of the coffee is dramatically affected by post harvest handling techniques, but Amaro farmers don’t have much price incentive at present to improve quality – they get the same low price whatever the quality (around €1.40 per kg – £ 0.70. You pay at least €3.00/£2.00 for 250g in Europe).

There has been a change in personnel at the co-op since my last visit. It’s a new concept and we have a long and tough two hour discussion. We want the co-operative to pay the farmers more for the improved coffee.

After much debate – we come up with a plan. The discussions – in Amharic with heroic interpretation from Agri Service project officer Dagne – would have been easier over a coffee or two.

Strangely, the co-op is the only place in Amaro where you can’t get a cup of the stuff.

Afterwards we chat with coffee farmer Shifferaw. He’s appreciated the training and found the manual really useful. He’ll certainly be entering the competition and has already filled one sack.

I ask Shifferaw the main challenges of preparing this higher quality coffee. He says picking only the ripe cherries is time consuming.

Can his wife and (seven) children help? No no, they can collect the leftovers off the ground – only he picks the best coffee!

Amaro remains someway off the egalitarian nirvana we’d all like to see – but I am hoping for some women entrants to the competition to help redress the balance.

Shifferaw’s neighbours Techo and his brother Sumaliu join us. Techo is pretty confident he’ll win the competition, to be held at the end of January.

All will be revealed then …

Posted by SeamusJ

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