2/5/24 Update - Keffa Coffees Demonstrate Volatility
Sources: The ZEM Coffee & Ethio-Catalyst teams
Written by: Emily McIntyre, ZEM CEO
TLDR; Keffa shows us once again how volatile coffee is during its production, and we get the chance to utilize our skills in regrouping!
ACTION TO TAKE: Check in with Charley or Emily about refocusing your purchases this year in our Sidama and Yirgacheffe supply chain—we will still have some of these coffees available to ship and land early.
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It’s two days over rough roads to our production in Keffa. One way. Factor a week for a trip to check on how coffee lots are progressing or to make any major communications. Early in the harvest season, before Sidama and Yirgacheffe really kick off, Zelalem and our Lead Process Specialist, Aaron Fesaha, spend about a month on site selecting cherries, hand-processing the unique lots which will become our personal pride and joy, and doing training for the day laborers and management at each site. Then, they move on to Sidama and Yirgacheffe where they do the same thing. In between they stop in Addis Ababa to visit their families—both have young children—and then back to the field, where they take critical data readings on lots and indicate whether it’s time to pull them off the beds or transport them.
Keffa is a natural rainforest and water is a constant factor of life there
This year, we produced about three containers of Keffa coffees on several vertically-integrated sites in Keffa. Early site samples were stable overall and they cupped from 85 for the Tsebel and Dur Feres-type Gr. 2s and up to the rare 88+ for Innovation Lots like Limited Oxygen, with plenty of lovely and interesting 86s and 87s in there. About 28 or 29 lots in total on our cupping tables so far and more finishing their drying cycle. Buyers were queued up for these coffees, which promised to land and be in roasteries by mid-April… exciting times!
Last week Zele visited to pull the took the final round of samples before we moved those lots to Addis Ababa for export processing and shipping. When he checked their parameters, we discovered the unhappy news that without exception, every single lot had risen in moisture content and water activity. This is due to more rain than usual and higher ambient humidity affecting the coffees, most of which were in storehouses and a few of which were finishing on the drying beds. Rain and moisture are constant in Keffa, which contains the Keffa Biosphere Reserve. Try as we might, we still can’t control the weather!
Tough stuff. This late in the harvest, we all know what the coffees being out of spec means: shelf life for those coffees drops along with cup score, even if they can be redried. The coffees will be sold on the local market, even the 3-bag lots of Limited Oxygen, even the single fermentation tank/day lot Coffee Cherry Co-Ferment, and even the Red and Black Honey!
It’s quite a blow for our small team and for the small business owners in Keffa on whose sites we produced the coffees. We have the word out to other Keffa producers that we may be able to buy their coffees for our clients, but we won’t get the chance to replace the Innovation Lots til next harvest, at which point everything starts over again.
On to Sidama and Yirgacheffe, and regrouping with our Keffa partners to analyze how we can avoid this, as we have in the past, next year. All signs point to remember that we are dealing with volatile agricultural products and that our robust quality control systems exist exactly to pinpoint these moments early enough for all parties to pivot and make new plans for the year.