Ethiopia's Garden Coffee Cultivation System and Coffee Bean Cultivation Systems Distributed Across Ethiopia's Nine

(Image from: National Geographic Chinese Website, Photography: Amivitale, Panos)

According to FrontStreet Coffee's research, approximately 1.2 million smallholder farming families in Ethiopia rely on coffee cultivation for their livelihood. Each household farms less than 4 hectares, with an average elevation of 1,000-2,300 meters. The planting density ranges from 1,000-1,800 coffee trees per hectare, yielding approximately 600kg per hectare.

Coffee cultivation is primarily concentrated in the western and southern regions, with smallholder families accounting for 90% of total cultivation.

In Ethiopia, 90% of coffee comes from gardens, forests, and semi-forests, while large-scale corporate plantations are indeed rare in the country.

Four Types of Ethiopian Coffee Cultivation

Coffee cultivation in Ethiopia can be classified into four types based on scale and model:

1. Forest Coffee

Refers to wild coffee, accounting for 10% of Ethiopia's total production. It is distributed in the wild coffee forest areas of the western and southwestern regions, known as the Kaffa Forest. The dense trees here provide the most natural shade for coffee trees, requiring no artificial care—life and death are entirely managed by Mother Nature. These forests are protected by the government, with designated personnel responsible for harvesting.

2. Semi-Forest Coffee

Refers to semi-wild coffee, accounting for 35% of Ethiopia's coffee production. Distributed in the western and southwestern Kaffa Forest regions, farmers in the forest coffee system select small plots of wild forestland to increase yields. They manually prune overly dense branches and leaves to balance shade and sunlight, assisting coffee trees in photosynthesis and growth, and weed once a year to increase coffee production. This is what we commonly refer to as increasing light transmission and fruit yield. This system employs a semi-natural, semi-artificial approach to cultivate coffee trees.

3. Garden Coffee

Farmers cultivate coffee trees in their backyards or farmland, intercropping with other crops. This system's coffee production reaches 50% of Ethiopia's total. Although the coffee tree density is lowest, with only 1,000-1,800 plants per hectare, it is the most popular method because the intercropping approach best meets farmers' livelihood needs and is currently the primary cultivation method for Ethiopian coffee. Smallholder garden coffee cultivation is mainly distributed in the southern Sidamo and southeastern regions, with the government actively promoting garden coffee cultivation methods.

4. Plantation Coffee

This system adopts modern agronomic management practices, with regulations on seedling cultivation, pruning, fertilization, pesticide application, and planting density. It is currently the only non-organic cultivation method, accounting for only 5% of national annual production. Established by state-owned or private entities for efficient mass production, plantation coffee accounts for 5%-10% of Ethiopia's coffee production.

From the four major systems mentioned above, it's clear that Ethiopia differs from the corporate, technologically advanced, high-efficiency plantations of Central and South America. Most Ethiopian coffee is cultivated using a mixture of wild and artificial methods, making yield increases challenging. However, Ethiopian agricultural experts remain undeterred, already cultivating high-yield, high-quality Arabica hybrid coffee trees in an effort to catch up and close the production gap with Central and South America.

Ethiopia's Nine Major Coffee Growing Regions

These four cultivation systems are distributed across Ethiopia's nine major growing regions: Djimma, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Limu, Illubabor, Gimbi (Lekempti), Tepi, and Bebeka. Overall, each region possesses its own flavor characteristics. Basically, beans from the western Tepi, Bebeka, Illubabor, and northwestern Lake Tana regions are noticeably larger, with stronger wild flavors but lower fruit acidity. The central Limu and central-southern Yirgacheffe and Sidamo regions offer rich fruit flavors, floral aromas, and acidic fragrances, with relatively stable quality. Eastern Harar combines both the wild flavors of the west and the fruit flavors of the central-south, though quality variations can be significant.

The above is information about Ethiopian coffee beans compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. We hope this article helps everyone better understand Ethiopian coffee.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473