A visit to Moredocofe to Study the Coffee Value Chain from the Shrub in Ethiopia to the cup in Europe
At the beginning of November, I traveled to Ethiopia with two of our MSc students, Rik Verhoek and Pietro Tonello, studying Food Quality Management and Entrepreneurship at Wageningen University, whose thesis projects I co-supervise with Prof. Bedir Tekinerdogan, the chairholder of the Information Technology Group (INF) of Wageningen University.
At INF, we focus on the scientific field of smart systems and system-of-systems engineering and informatics to address real-world challenges in food systems. Analysing of the coffee value chain from the shrub in Africa to the cup of coffee in Europe fits perfectly in our research theme of addressing the information systems of complex supply chains. From this perspective, we formulated a thesis research topic to study the Ethiopian coffee value chain, tracing its journey from the shrub in Ethiopia to the cup in Europe.
The research focuses on two subtopics chosen by the students. The first aims to investigate how the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will impact the value chain, while the second analyses the certification processes, such as Fairtrade and UTZ, within the value chain. Their study co-initiated and co-sponsored by the Moremora river valley Development Organic Coffee Enterprise (Moredocofe) in Ethiopia, who also hosted us in Ethiopia.
This study became particularly interesting for us because, even though Ethiopia mainly produces high-quality organic Arabica coffee in a semi-forest production system and despite its coffee fetching high prices on the international market, questions still remain about how the international value chain functions and whether producers receive a fair share. Thanks to our trip, we also observed how the organic coffee production methods in Guji, where the farms of Moredocofe are located, have extended to organic fruit farming
This is a brief story of our trip in our effort to study the Ethiopian coffee value chain. While the research is ongoing and the results may provide a more in-depth and objective reflection, I wish to share our observations and experiences here without making any qualifying judgements.
In Addis Ababa
In the first 3 days, we stayed in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, socialised with our hosts, and visited their coffee sorting facility. We also had the opportunity to interview stakeholders and experts in the value chain and visit the Africa Livestock Exhibition, where the Netherlands had a significant presence. The facility visit revealed that coffee undergoes further processing in modern facilities using basic techniques like size and gravity separation, as well as advanced image inspection of individual coffee beans.
Travelling to the farms
On the following two days, we travelled to Shakiso, Guji, in southern Ethiopia, about 520 km south of the capital. The area is considered the original home of the coffee plant. According to legend, coffee was brought from here and introduced to the outside world when Yemeni merchants brought it to the Arab world seven centuries ago. Guji is still largely forested, and our journey to Shakiso took us through stunning scenery.
We arrived at around 5 p.m. at a hill overlooking the coffee farm. What we saw looked a forest and not a farm. We learned that coffee thrives in shade, and the coffee shrubs grow beneath and between the trees. On the evening, we got a glimpse of on-farm coffee processing that was taking place throughout the day and overnight. Our other impression was the numerous hip-high slanting drying beds, where coffee is sun-dried for two hours twice a day and then covered with a hard plastic sheet to protect it from over-exposure to sun or from rain.
Coffee processing at farm
Unlike the modern facilities in the capital, farm-level processing relies mainly on basic, labour-intensive methods. These include pulping, soaking the coffee in concrete tanks, washing, and drying the coffee on raised beds. Some of the steps are done by machine, such as pulping and grading, while most of the process is carried out by hand. As the coffee farms and facilities are the main sources of employment in the area and unlikely to change until labour becomes scarce and expensive.
Processing coffee from own and out grower farmers
In addition to developing its own farms, Moredocofe has trained and supported over 300 out-growers who supply coffee cherries to its processing facilities. Coffee cherries from own farms and from out-growers are pulped, graded, soaked/fermented, washed, and dried at the on-farm facility.
This locally produced machine handles pulping and grading. Grading coffee is an important step that occurs at every stage of processing. The students asked how grading works with such a simple machine. Mr. Haile Gebre (on the left in the photo below), our host and owner, provided a straightforward explanation: coffee inside its (well-ripened) pulp is grade one; what lowers its grade is the care it receives throughout the entire process.
After pulping, the coffee is placed into different soaking concrete tanks and left to ferment, which facilitates subsequent washing.
Semi-forest coffee farm
On the second and third days of our stay at the farm, we went under the canopy we had seen from afar on our arrival. In some areas, there were rows of coffee plants, but in many places, the coffee shrubs grew under the trees. It doesn’t resemble a typical farm, nor is it a pristine forest. That is what is called a semi-forest coffee. Coffee is planted and nourished with organic fertiliser made from coffee cherry pulp. The coffee cherry ripens from September onwards and is hand-picked until February, as the green cherries mature in phases.
Mr. Haile Gebre
Mordocofe was established by Ato (Mr.) Haile Gebre, a highly educated and articulate individual who previously held a high-ranking government position. He is also the founder of a farmers’ cooperative bank and a prominent advocate for organic agriculture. The high standards imposes by the government on coffee plantations, combined with his experience and commitment to organic agriculture, extend beyond coffee at the Guji farm. Ato Haile showed us his experimental papaya, mango, and avocado farm and explained with great patience about his method of experimentation. As with coffee, he practices intercropping and uses only organic fertilizers produced on the farm. As in the coffee farm, no crop protection chemicals are used, instead he employs small-scale testing and selective breeding to select plant-resistant varieties.
Back to Addis
Back in Addis, we visited the coffee processing facility again, along with its roasting facility. The green coffee business remains the mainstay of the company, while roasting is a smaller but hopefully growing value-adding venture.
What is next
This is just a glimpse of what we were able to see and learn. The visit to Ethiopia has been both exciting and eye-opening for the students, helping them gain a deeper understanding of the upstream value chain in Ethiopia. The next step is to study the downstream segment of the value chain in their respective countries, Italy and the Netherlands, and map the entire chain.
The organic practices implemented in Ethiopia over the past 20 years have already provided us with a more nuanced perspective on the EUDR. Beyond imposing strict regulatory criteria, the EU could also acknowledge the deforestation mitigation efforts of producers, who have implemented systems and methods to prevent deforestation and have been undertaking reforestation long before the introduction of this regulation, yet often receive little or no recognition or reward for their contributions. We aim to build on this relationship and establish a sustained collaboration to apply our expertise in transparency, traceability, and information systems to support the rise of equitable value chains.
