DAMO ETHIOPIA
melon ∙ blueberry ∙ pomelo
Damo processing station run by Assefa Dukamo is located near the Shanta Golba Mountains in the Sidama region of Ethiopia. Assefa, as owner and export license holder, also coordinates coffee growing, processing and direct sales. Its many benefits include transparent trade and the possibility of long-term business relationships.
E
thiopia is the home of extraordinary coffees. Ethiopian coffee is instantly recognizable even in blind cuppings due to their distinctive flavour made up of several hundreds of indigenous arabica varietals grown wild in the various micro-climates of the country. 95% of Ethiopia’s 300 000 tonnes of coffee export is supplied by more than a million small, independent farmers. The rest is grown by an increasing number of private and state-owned plantations. Recently the Ethiopian government began reforming the export system to open the market and allow exporters and bigger farms (estates) to export their own coffee with one condition: the selling price must always be higher than that which would have been fixed by the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) for a comparable quality of coffee. Several farms are currently in the process of applying for export licenses and have begun to detach themselves from the washing stations by processing and selling their own coffee.