This is one of the lots that have come from a group of small farmers in the Sidama region of Southern Ethiopia. With the changes to export laws in Ethiopia, small producers are now able to market their coffee directly, but this is still very challenging, and few have access to capital to make this happen. This group of farmers in Sidama all have between 3 and 12 hectares and all have their own export licenses, however this year they have assigned Buriso Amaje as their group leader and he coordinated the milling and export of the coffee alongside the Falcon team in Addis. Since these producers are small, their main limitation is cash flow, so Falcon prefinanced the coffee in order to ensure they weren’t forced to sell their coffee locally for cash. This group have amazing potential and this year we are seeing some of that, but with the help of Falcon’s agronomist we plan to train them on farm management and picking, processing and drying.

Nuguse has 10 hectares of coffee spread across 3 different parcels of land in the Huro Hibiro village in Bensa, Sidama. Nuguse grows 74158 and 74160 varieties which are both selections from the Jimma research centre. These varieties were selected from wild plants in the Metu-Bishari forest in the Illuababora zone in Western Ethiopia. They’re widely distributed varieties across Ethiopia and were selected for their resistance to CBD and high yield. These two selections are known to have very pronounced citrus and floral notes which are prized by coffee buyers. Nuguse’s coffee is all processed and dried at his family home and he only produces natural coffee.