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Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Process [Flower Queen] Micro-region Hambella Estate Lion Village

Published: 2026-01-28 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/28, Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). According to Ethiopian regulations, the coffee export system has three main channels: (1) The largest system of private processing plants exported through ECX bidding; (2) The cooperative system; (3) The single farm system. Among these three systems, cooperatives and single estates do not need to go through ECX

Professional coffee knowledge exchange for more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

According to Ethiopian regulations, there are three coffee export systems: (1) The largest system of private processing plants exported through ECX bidding; (2) The cooperative system; (3) The single farm system. Among these three systems, cooperatives and single estates can directly export without going through ECX bidding, which can be said to have completely reliable traceability/product history.

However, if we trace back to the root, cooperatives after all are also purchasing cherries harvested by small farmers for centralized processing, not 100% traceable. Single farms are after all the only possibility for moving toward the next generation.

Ethiopia Commodity Exchange

The "Ethiopia Commodity Exchange" (ECX) was founded in 2008 by Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a former senior economist at the World Bank and director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The original intention behind ECX's establishment was to create Ethiopia's and even Africa's first commodity exchange, introducing pricing mechanisms, warehousing and logistics, instant communication and other modern trading rules and technologies to change Ethiopia's agricultural market situation of high transaction risks and high transaction costs, building an effective, reliable, and transparent commodity market.

ECX was widely praised at its inception and was considered to revolutionize Ethiopian agriculture, reducing famine and poverty. In the past, Ethiopian farmers often could not get fair prices due to information asymmetry and market risks. According to widespread media reports, ECX stated that through rural cooperatives, ECX has provided market access to over 2.4 million small farmers.

ECX's coffee trading operation model is roughly as follows: First, farmers sell coffee cherries to local washing stations, and some washing stations will pay higher prices to purchase better quality coffee cherries. The washing stations will send the processed green beans to warehouses at delivery stations.

ECX functions as a "distribution center" that achieves the following points:

1. Better price protection - it purchases coffee beans from farmers at stable and relatively generous prices, and then hoards the goods;

2. Coffee grading - higher quality gets higher prices;

3. Timely information - coffee farmers can immediately get transaction prices, processing stations in their area, coffee warehouses in their area and other information by phone;

4. Establishing warehouses & processing plants - as of 2012, Ethiopia had 56 warehouses distributed across 17 locations, of which 9 locations had coffee warehouses, reducing transportation costs.

Taking the Yirgacheffe region as an example, the delivery station is Dila, where green beans are labeled according to production area and graded according to bean quality and cupping results. The higher the overall quality, the higher the selling price. Traders purchase green beans through ECX, but the packaging will at most indicate the production area and village, such as "Yirgacheffe: Konga" or "Yirgacheffe: Kochere".

Ethiopia Coffee Cooperative Names and Introductions

Farmers' Cooperative Union

To facilitate direct export of farmers' cooperatives, local farmers' cooperatives have collectively established their respective cooperative unions. There are now 6 cooperative unions in Ethiopia:

● Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU)

● Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU)

● Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU)

● Kafa Forest Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (KFCFCU)

● Bench Maji Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (BMCFCU)

● Tepi Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (TCFCU)

The advantage of cooperative unions is that they unite scattered small farmers and cooperatives to form a large collective, participate in international projects such as Firetrade, provide a unified export to contact buyers, distribute a certain proportion of the harvest to cooperatives, cooperatives deduct management fees, retain a portion for community development, and distribute the remainder to small farmers. Small farmers can obtain income more stably and conveniently to cope with planting and living expenses, which is why more and more small farmers are willing to join cooperatives.

Sigiga Cooperative (1600-2500m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Kochere

Members: 1862

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Certifications: Fair Trade, UTZ sustainable farming, Organic coffee

Finchewan Cooperative (1450-2000m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 1271

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Konga Cooperative (1750-2300m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 1556

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Hafursa Cooperative (1750-2300m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 1975

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Annual Green Bean Production: 798,000 kg

Average Farm Size: Maximum 4 hectares, approximately 600 kg per hectare annually

Cooperative has washing station

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Resa Cooperative (1000-1400m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 2719

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide two sets of coffee processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Addis Katema Cooperative (1000-1400m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 891

Cooperative has washing station

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Biloya Cooperative (1600-2500m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Kochere

Members: 1203

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Provides two sets of coffee processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Worka Cooperative (1650-2700m)

Production Area: Gedeb

Members: 305

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Annual Green Bean Production: 457,000 kg

Average Farm Size: Maximum 4 hectares, approximately 699 kg per hectare annually

Cooperative has all processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Koke Cooperative (1750-2300m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 828

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, UTZ sustainable farming, Organic coffee

Hama Cooperative (1600-2500m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Kochere

Members: 1505

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Chichu Cooperative (1410-2000m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Dila

Members: 1675

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Average Farm Size: Maximum 4 hectares, approximately 591 kg per hectare annually

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Michile Cooperative (1410-2000m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Dila

Members: 1206

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Average Farm Size: Approximately 592 kg per hectare annually

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, UTZ sustainable farming, Organic coffee

Hase Haro Cooperative (1450-2000m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 1519

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Average Farm Size: Maximum 4 hectares, approximately 591 kg per hectare annually

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Dumerso Cooperative (1750-2300m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 246

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide two sets of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Tumticha Cooperative (1410-2000m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 960

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide two sets of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Aramo Cooperative (1750-2300m) (90+ Chibi production area)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 2254

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide two sets of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Edido Cooperative (1750-2300m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 1044

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Adame Cooperative (1000-1400m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 533

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Belekara Cooperative (1000-1400m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Wenago

Members: 685

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Adado Cooperative (1200-1700m)

Production Area: Sidamo-Bule

Members: 1128

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

Haru Cooperative (1200-1700m)

Production Area: Gedeo-Yirgacheffe

Members: 1187

Soil Type: Red-brown soil

Can provide one set of processing equipment

Certifications: Fair Trade, Organic coffee

In July 2017, two new coffee trade regulations may change this situation, giving coffee farmers the right to choose to sell their coffee beans to coffee processing plants within 3 days before they arrive at ECX warehouses.

Single Farm

This system has actually always existed in Ethiopia, but its proportion has not been high, and traditionally it has belonged to large commercial batches that do not emphasize quality. With Ethiopia's emergence in the third wave of specialty coffee in the past two to three decades, besides traditional coffee practitioners, Ethiopia has gradually seen a group of innovators influenced by Western culture who hope to bring changes to this industry. In addition to traditional exporters investing in cultivation in production areas, it has also attracted a wave of people returning from Europe and America to invest in their hometowns.

How important is the single farm system (we'll temporarily call it Single Farm Project, or SFP)? We all know that Ethiopia is dominated by smallholder systems, but smallholder systems cannot achieve complete traceability.

Single farms are the only answer to all these problems. Single variety batches, special processing method batches, customized batches and other very important practical concepts for specialty coffee development,

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo natural "Horse Champion" bean belongs to a single farm, the micro-region Hambella estate.