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

et, groceries, dwellers), all coffee should arrive to the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange.
Whoever produces coffee, it has to be tested on a sample basis at the woreda MoARD
liquoring unit/quality control 65
then checked through the WARDO (Woreda Agriculture and
Rural Development Office) before getting out of woreda’s boundaries.
Once in the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange warehouses located in Saris (South of the
capital), whoever provided it, all coffee beans are tested on their provenance and quality on a
sample basis. Grading standards are set according to the number of defects and the type of
processing. A first test, the arrival test, qualifies coffee according to its provenance and its
quality (number of defects): Sidama A2, B5 or C3 for example, each letter meaning different
and defined areas whereas numbers are quality grades. Then for export coffee, once coffee is
bought to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, coffee has to be “normalized” through export
standards: the export standards processing plants are located in Addis Abeba; these are private
machines but, commonly, exporters and unions rent it to the Coffee Processing and
Warehouse governmental Enterprise. The latter owns the sophisticated German Bülher
machine upgrading coffee according to export standards. Then a second test only concerning
export coffee is realized to control the number of defects after coffee got reprocessed by
exporters.
At this stage grades are given in an international coffee classification: the Ethiopian
exports grades are grade 2 for washed coffee and grades 4 and 5 for unwashed coffee. For
example, washed coffee supplies are often dominated by Sidamo 2, Yirgacheffe 2 or Limu 2
while the most common unwashed coffees are Jima 5, Sidamo 4 or Harar 5. These graded
coffees belong to the nine Ethiopian cup profiles:
Harar (sun dried)
Exported as Harar 4 or 5
Limu (washed)
Exported as Limu 2
Lekempti-Ghimbi (washed)
Exported as Nekemte 2
Yirgacheffe (washed)
Exported as Yirgacheffe 2
Jima (sun dried)
Exported as Jima 4 or 5
Bebeka (washed)
Sidamo (sun dried/washed)
Exported as Sidamo 2
Ghimbi-Lekempti (sun
dried) Exported Nekemte 4/5
Teppi (washed)
Table 10: Ethiopian cup profiles (data: Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority and OCFCU, prod:
Bossolasco, 2009)
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Refer 6.1.3) A global Ethiopian coffee quality through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority
establishment.
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