New fermentation technique in Sidamo, Ethiopia

Sidamo Region, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a magical land of contrasts located in East Africa, north of the equator.. This is the fifth country in the current ranking of world coffee production and is the most important in the entire African continent. Approximately 85% of the farmers in this country are very small farmers with plantations of no more than 0.1 hectares..

In the country we find 12 very different production zones, more than 130 micro-locations, as well as more than 2,000 autochthonous varieties that make Ethiopian coffee very diverse and complex. Ethiopian coffee is very diverse and complex.

The Sidamo region rests in the Rift Valley in the southern part of the country and in a zone of lush vegetation because in the rainy season with abundant precipitation. Height above sea level in this demarcation is located between 1500 and 2300 meters.

Shantawene Farm and Washing Stations

At November 2019In the Sidamo region, we traveled to Daye, a small town in the district of Bensa, in the Sidamo region, in order to launch a new round of experiments carefully planned by our R&D department. Our local partners: Daye Bensa Coffeea company that grows, processes and exports coffee, with a young team of managers of production and washing stations in the field.

Daye’s network consists of 16 washing stations around Sidamo where they work with outside producers and a farm, called Shantawene. While we were strategically based in Daye for a week, our work together took place in 3 different villages: Shantawene, Karamo and Bombe, all located between 1900-2300 m altitude.

During our visit, we made a change in production techniques, introducing anaerobic and combined fermentation and various drying techniques that, together with the unique genetics and the particular ecosystem of this region, gave us excellent results.

The result

For three años in a row Daye Bensa has been part of the TOP 10 of the Cup of Excellence in Ethiopia. In this month of July 2022 they have achieved an exceptional result – Second place among the best coffees of Ethiopia 2022 with a score of 90.25 SCA. We are proud that such a high score has been achieved thanks to anaerobic fermentation, only two batches from this process made it to the international round and one of them from
Daye Bensa
Congratulations!