Shigekazu Yamawaki, Associate Director of EWBI, East Asia
I recently returned home to Ballarat, Australia after a two-week trip to Ethiopia. The main purpose of the visit was to move forward with my project to add higher value to coffee-related products with a local Ethiopian partner in the Sidama Region, which voted in a referendum on Nov 20 for self-government.
I visited coffee farms in the forests and coffee washing (processing) sites in the region. It was an invaluable opportunity for me to be able to talk with farmers and site owners.
Sidama coffee farmers are working harder and harder, but they remain poor because they are not in a position to determine the price of their green coffee beans, which consequently affects the farmers’ livelihood if the prices in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) are low and not in the farmers’ favour.
Coffee is a major cash crop for Sidama farmers who believe that the higher the quality of the coffee cherries they harvest, the more income they will receive. However, under the current system, the prices farmers receive are heavily influenced by the prices of futures contracts determined mainly at the NYMEX.
Furthermore, efforts by fair-trade organisations to obtain fairer prices under the Voluntary Sustainability Standards for coffee have not led to significant improvements in the income of coffee farmers in Ethiopia, according to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ethiopia produces one of the world’s highest quality coffee products. However, they are mainly all exported as a commodity, green coffee beans in this case, without any value being added. To improve this situation, some value needs to be added to green coffee beans at the farmer’s community level.
My local partner and I are planning to conduct a pilot project in the Sidama Region commencing in April 2020. Our project aims to produce Coffee Related Products at the local level, which will add some value and create employment opportunities especially for women in the local Sidama community.
Shigekazu with Tsegab Ayele (center) and Tsegab’s sister at a local coffee shop
Tsegab Ayele, my Ethiopian project partner, who is also general manager of Heleph Coffee Export, emphasizes the importance of empowering the women. He works at the coalface with farmers and workers at the coffee washing (processing) sites. The following is one of many examples of how Heleph Coffee engages and assists women through its operation:
Two young women, Furra Shetaye and Deraro Arfasa, 24 and 25 years of age respectively, became part of the Heleph Coffee family. These two women come from different households. They did not have the chance to go to school when they were young. Heleph Coffee provided these two ambitious women who lived in different towns with jobs at one of Heleph’s coffee washing (processing) sites.
They are now working very hard and attentively. Since coffee is a very important crop in Sidama Region, which is renowned for its quality coffee all over the world, they work with pride and take care of Heleph’s coffee as if it were their own.
Heleph Coffee is assisting these two women with their education since it is a key to improve their lives. Heleph Coffee is proud to employ young, hardworking and dedicated women like Furra & Deraro.
Heleph Coffee is looking to engage many more women living in the Sidama community and its ultimate goal is to see women in the community owning and running their own coffee farms in the years to come.
