Heading East

Dire Dawa and Harar

I had already planned to head off to the East prior to Timkat (Ethiopian Orthodox Christian festival), by sheer coincidence I had met Abrhaman a coffee buyer, exporter, and roaster of Harar coffees in Addis. His Mawai coffee is available in most Addis food outlets, so I was excited to have the opportunity to be invited to see it firsthand. With some swift calls from his friend Abduhman, I headed of first to Dire Dawa where the Mawi dry mill and roastery are based, then onto Harar to be shown around the city and visit some coffee and chat farmers.

Abrhaman had briefly explained that the regional harvest had been good, but domestic prices for Harar coffee were extremely high. He explained Harar varieties (Longberry, Shortberry, Peaberry) demanded high prices from the farmers; however the latest prices per 17kg were extremely high. The quoted price range at the time for Harar Longberry was 1700-1900 bir for 17kg. When in perspective, these were equal to domestic price quotes for top crop washed Yrigacheffe. As you can imagine for a profit to be made the coffee has to then exchange again for an even higher price on the ECX*.

So after an interesting bus journey, on what seemed to be endless winding roads of more chat trees lining red soiled valleys and eager children waiting for your discarded plastic bottles. I arrived in Dire Dawa, which is an attractive town with distinctive Italian architectural influences. I spent the day being shown around Mawis dry mill by his sister, who informed me, the roasting facilities would soon be adjoined onto the dry mill building. At the time it was waiting to be filled up with local coffees.

At their roastery the familiar smell of roasted coffee brought a smile to my face. Especially since the ladies effortlessly went about their work; roasting, cooling, grinding, packing and labeling of their fresh coffee, in the compact room.

I found it interesting that colour checking was not a concern; instead all roasting was done by eye. In this case to French roast. We enjoyed their fresh filtered coffee, and for the first time I accepted a little bit of sugar in mine.

After a bit too comfortable a sleep, I headed off to Harar with Mahadi and later Youseff. Harar is the capital of the Harage region and is famed for its walled city.

We visited family members in the city, who selflessly welcomed me into their beautiful traditional Harar homes. After eating we discussed the importance of the coffee ceremony, for men and women, whilst enjoying are own ceremony. Sarah said the ceremony is actually more of a gossip ceremony, which local women both call to share and solve problems. It is also a common practice to start the day and finish the day with a coffee ceremony as a family. Sarah kindly showed me her small collection of coffee trees which were intercropped with false bananas, papaya and honey in a small garden plot within her house compound. I only took a small handful and some coffee leaves, not so much to drink, but to actually keep with me until I left Ethiopia.

Later Youseff proudly showed of the walled city, where he had lived all his life. We headed out from the walled city for 2km to Mahadis friends grandmother’s farmland. It became hard to not discuss the importance of chat and coffee to the farmers. Chat itself has 15 known species, and is cultivated across regions of Ethiopia.

Mohammed who farmed chat explained why chat is more time consuming than coffee, requiring extensive husbandry. So basically the chat trees need constant water supply and pruning, which is an issue in the region, due to the sparse amounts of water.

I stupidly joked that they probably have a cooperative… and of cause they have a union! As you may also guess Americano and Columbian also mean something completely different in the chat experience!

On a more serious note I did ask if other areas had stopped to grow chat instead of coffee, he said this does happen. But to put it in perspective chat consumption is not new, it is as they all agreed now more wide spread and accessible. It is currently the third largest export commodity in Ethiopia; its legal demand is unprecedented both domestically and internationally.

From a farmers perspective Chat seemed to be an offering safer and higher returns than coffee. But as I looked at the young coffee trees, I did think about the coincidence that the highest chat and coffee prices are both found in this region. It also starkly emphasised coffee like chat is a commodity, and incentives are always financial.