Birhanu Haile is one of the youngest coffee farmers in the Jabanto farmers group, based in Aricha village, Yirgacheffe county. Unlike many of his peers, Birhanu had the opportunity to attend school, thanks to his father’s commitment to education. However, Birhanu was deeply captivated by the passion his father and neighboring coffee farmers had for growing and trading coffee. He chose to leave school to pursue a career in coffee farming, aspiring to make a mark in the specialty coffee industry both nationally and internationally. It is uncommon to see young people engage in both coffee farming and business, but Birhanu is an exception. His dedication has inspired other young people, who might otherwise be unemployed in the city, to return to coffee farming and business in Aricha and Wegida villages. Dozens have followed his lead, making it increasingly common to see a younger generation of coffee farmers emerging in these areas.
History
Birhanu’s journey as an independent farmer began in 2010 when he inherited a small coffee farm from his father. Since then, he has worked tirelessly, diversifying his income through various ventures including farming, retail shops, and working as a commission agent for red coffee supply to private coffee washing stations. He reinvested his earnings into acquiring more coffee farms. By the year 2024, Birhanu's coffee cultivation spanned across Aricha village, with a total of seven plots dedicated to growing coffee. He works diligently with the local bureau of agriculture to find the best coffee varieties that are most suited to his farming system and the local environment. His coffee farms contain a diverse collection of coffee varieties, primarily consisting of improved varieties developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) and local landrace varieties. Kurume and Welisho are well-known local landrace coffee varieties, while 74110 and 74112 are modern varieties developed by JARC. His collaboration with Jabanto and G Broad has been particularly beneficial, allowing him to sell his coffee at better prices on the international market. Since 2019, he has consistently supplied Yirgacheffe Natural Grade 1 coffee to G Broad.
Jabanto Producer Group
Jabanto farmers business group was established in 2018 with the help of G Broad PLC. An initial 29 smallholder coffee farmers from Gedeo zone founded the group in 2018 and the size of the group kept expanding over years - today there are 87 registered smallholder coffee farmers in the group. The group tries to produce different coffee types: regional lots, village level lots, single farmer lots, variety lots and processing lots. The collaboration between Bi-Lab and Co-Lab, specialized coffee laboratories owned by G Broad in Addis Ababa and Condesa in Sydney respectively, could help better define coffee sourcing approaches, quality control mechanisms, marketing and promotion opportunities for farmers. Single farmer lots represent the largest percentages of the product developed at Bi-Lab and Jabanto, Condesa's coffee sourcing collaborators at origin in Ethiopia. Promoting coffee lots under the name of a smallholder coffee farmer is at the heart of our business and development philosophies. Out of 87 registered member farmers in the Jabanto farmers business group, those farmers who produce an outstanding coffee with superior quality and cup score are promoted as a single farmer lot. We pay a better and higher price for a single framer lot as compared to a composite (group) lot - for example Jabanto lot. We believe that rewarding farmers for quality is a good mechanism to create competition among farmers for quality and motivate them to produce better quality coffees year after year.
Natural coffee processing
Protocol - Jabanto: Well ripe red cherries are dried for 18-21 days on a raised bed usually called an African bed. During all these days, cherry quality control continues. A total of 11 Kg of red coffee cherry per square meter is distributed on a drying bed made of Bamboo mat. To maintain uniform drying among beans, the coffee is turned around on the bed manually six times per day. The cherry is then covered with nylon mesh and plastic during the night time. Starting the 15th day, the trend of coffee bean moisture loss is monitored to pull the dried cherry off the bed if the coffee bean attains a moisture level between 9.5% and 10.5%. This natural coffee processing technique plus the complex interactions among soil, rainfall distribution, temperature, shade, and genetic makeup of varieties play the greatest role to affect the quality profile of a specific coffee lot.
