Page 54 - #45 English

Culture

active after eating the red fruits off some nearby trees.
Hence, the first meeting between man and coffee took
place and the epic tale of Kaldi and the dancing goats
started to spread throughout the world, along with the
craving for the beans to brew it.

Most historians agree the Coffea Arabica plant was discov-
ered growing in the wild in Ethiopia between the 6th & 8th
centuries. Production first surged between the 10th & 12th
centuries.
Renovation efforts are taking place in most of the famous
to the unique history of Ethiopia being the birthplace of Ethiopian coffee regions including Sidamo, Yirgacheffe,
coffee, and now we can start offer more of this coffee on Harar, Jimma and Limmu.
a much more consistent basis,” Hussein Agraw, President
of Ethiopia’s Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA), Addis Known as “forest coffee” the trees here grow up to
Ababa. 15 meters tall, have long ultra-narrow leaves and are noth-
The ECEA has pegged total exports in the new 2014- ing like the commercially developed Arabica varieties that
15 cycle to reach a record of at least 3.9 million bags, up produce most of the world’s Arabica coffee today. Cuppers
from the close to 3.2 million bags exported in the last agree that the flavor is among the richest in the world with
2013-14 cycle, said Agraw. a powerful body, balanced acidity, extraordinary smooth
Production figures in Ethiopia remain difficult to aroma and a plethora of flavor attributes that explode
verify as Ethiopians are known to drink up to as much across the palate and leaves a long-lasting aftertaste.
as 60 percent of their own coffee crop at home and a “In 2008, production in the Kaffa Zone was only
detailed household survey of consumption habits has about 400,000 bags but at the time a political decision was
never been carried out. The London-based International taken to turn this area into a market center and the gov-
Coffee Organization reported a total crop of 8.1 million ernment has been providing training to farmers on how
bags in the 2012-13 cycle, but private sources in Ethiopia to implement new technology in addition to providing
generally agree that this figure is too high and was based seeds and extension services on farming practices,” said
on government figures projecting desired coffee earnings Kassahun Taye, manager at the Kaffa Regional Agriculture
rather than actual production. Office in the town of Bonga. In the last three years, the
Regardless, coffee production is growing, and based land cultivated with coffee has been expanded and is on
on the known figures for new plantings, trees per hectares target to reach the project goal of 260,346 hectares [of
and the actual area under cultivation, industry officials coffee] by the end of 2015, up 45 percent from the 2012
agree that Ethiopia’s coffee crop is set to become even number of 179,202 hectares, he said.
bigger in the next 5 to 10 years. “When we look at what With vast areas of undeveloped agricultural land still
has been planted, both through the renovation of existing available for farming, Kaffa province is leading the produc-
coffee farms and new areas, Ethiopia should increase its tion boom in Ethiopia. But today, renovation efforts are
annual coffee production to between at least 9 or 10 mil- reported out of most of the equally famous Ethiopian cof-
lion bags in the next five years,” said Gebrekidan. fee regions including Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Jimma
and Limmu.
From Kaffa to Coffee At the heart of the Ethiopian coffee scene for years,
No more is the Ethiopian coffee boom visible than Jimma and close-by Limmu have long been known as
at the very source of coffee in the Southeastern province home to some of the flavors considered the most tra-
of Kaffa, the province that lent its name to coffee. Here, ditional among Ethiopian coffees, mostly processed as
deep into the dense forests in the province on the border natural or semi-washed Arabicas which leaves a natural
just north of Kenya and with South Sudan to the west, touch of sweetness from the pulp and mucilage in the final
the region is famously home to coffee still growing in the cup flavor. Located some 350 kilometers south-west of
wild, just as it was when according to legend coffee was Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, the massive Limmu Coffee
first discovered more than 1,000 years ago. Farm is at the center of the renovation efforts that today
Different variations of the story exist, but most agree are sweeping Ethiopia as part of the wave of privatization
that a young goat herder by the name of Kaldi after many which has helped move Ethiopia up the rank of developing
sleepless nights watching out over his master’s goats, one countries and out of the bottom-10, according to World
day noticed that the goats turned unusually upbeat and Bank figures.
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