A study case on coffee (Coffea arabica): Limu Coffe - IRD

Limmuu Kossaa service cooperatives are Babo, Ambuye, Shogelle, Mito, Tencho,
Debelo, Suntu, and Chime. That represents 3,782 households (3,762 in Limu Kosa), 13,700
men and 337 women implicated in coffee production. Coffee is their main product.
Cooperatives are in a fifty km radius around Limu Genet. The annual general assembly takes
place in September. One share to be a member is 5,000 birr. Each cooperative possesses at
least one share ant at most 10% of union shares. In the union, there are eight employees and
three future employees in September 2009.
The Limu Organic Coffee Project
The implementer of the project is the Oromiya Agricultural and Marketing
Output Agency. It concluded agreements with Oxfam GB implied in the project, and the BCS
Okö organic certifier. The pilot and planning project “Empowering Smallholder Coffee
Producers of Limmu through Organic Coffee Production and Marketing” is converting coffee
farming plants. Organic coffee market groups were established within cooperatives to produce
their coffee under organic production rules only. There are six to seven market groups per
cooperative, and thirty to forty households per market group. In July 2009, there were 3,468
farmers into 146 market groups. The agreement is signed between the union and these market
groups. The union shall buy all organic coffee produced by the market groups and export, or
facilitate market access with the private sector for the organic coffee which it coul not buy.
The union shall transfer 80% of the net profit to the farmers, and bound to assure that the
dividend reaches every household member according to its supplies. Indeed farmers dry their
coffee; then the union buys it at the daily price of feresulla, and adds seven birr for the
producer per feresulla plus five birr to the cooperative per feresulla. Last season, feresulla =
150 + 7 + 5 = 162 birr.
The market groups shall grow coffee in accordance to the internationally recognized
organic methods including the following basic rules (Organic coffee production, inspection,
certification and marketing agreement, September 2009):
- The use of any pesticides, chemical fertilizers or other substances is strictly
forbidden in organic farming, inside the farm for coffee or any other crop;
- In <strong>case</strong> of neighbouring non organic farm plots, a sufficient buffer zone has to be
established;
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