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Wondwossen Wound Up On Ethiopian Economic Ethos

Llewellyn Sinclair — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:29:34 +0000

Wondwossen Mezlekia’s coffee politics blog, Poor Farmer, has another damning piece on the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, this from a study commissioned by the Partnership Program between the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs Government and Wageningen UR:

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange cannot meet the demands of the high value markets, such as the Japanese market and the demand for sustainably and safely produced mainstream products by major Western retailers. But it does meet the demands of the major importer, China, and other countries that pay rather low prices.

He’s a controversial figure, that Wondwossen, always willing to battle against the Ethiopian government.

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The 2012 Good Food Awards Wrap-Up

Llewellyn Sinclair — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:37:25 +0000

A look back at the 2011 GFA gala, with both of your Sprudge editors reporting from inside the posh Ferry Building in San Francisco…

“Coffee! Congratulations! This is really awesome because they say we represent the best of our industries and that’s lucky for us because I think we are the best industry. So, sorry everybody else. [Laughter, Boos, Hisses] There’s one thing you need to know about coffee people and that’s that coffee people really love coffee people.” – Colleen Anunu, Gimme! Coffee

More than 3 years on from Slow Food Nation, an event whose retrospective acclaim and estimation shows no signs of slowing, the San Francisco Organic Dining High-Low Society scene is still a real trip. In the 19th century, you would have needed the bluest of blue blood to be anywhere near an event like this, and it would be thrown not in celebration of tasty things, but rather to honor the holy nuptials of some anemic royalty. In the 20th century perhaps sheer money could buy your way in (or at the very least, a notable art collection). But here in 21st, it is the organic apples you’ve sourced for your line of heirloom preserves – this is what clips your ticket into high society. The result is something like the Royal Court at Versailles getting down with the 4-H Club, both low and high society at the same time; a place where where no one quiets down for the key note speech and Alice Waters is referred to only as “Alice”, making her the mononymous Brazillian soccer hunk of California cuisine.

For the sake of archival purposes, props and perhaps to get your hands on some of the coffees that were selected, here is the complete list of 2012 coffee finalists and winners. One things certain, it was a banner year for Yirgacheffe.

Broadway Café and Roasting Company, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Missouri * Winner
Counter Culture Coffee, Buna Ababa – Haru North Carolina * Winner
Equator Coffees & Teas, Ethiopia Watadera FTO California * Winner
Flying Goat Coffee, Ethiopia Sidamo Moredocofe California
George Howell Coffee Company, Konga Yirgacheffe Massachusetts
Gimme! Coffee, Colombia Finca San Luis New York * Winner
Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Co., Organic Ethiopia Koke Missouri
Kickapoo Coffee, Organic Biloya Yirgacheffe Wisconsin * Winner
Klatch Coffee Inc., Ethiopia Worka California * Winner
Noble Coffee Roasting, Colombia Finca San Luis Oregon * Winner
Sightglass Coffee, Ethiopia Shakiso California

EXC Ethiopian coffees cleaned up at the GFA’s for a variety of reasons. We asked Good Food Awards judge and Counter Culture Coffee head buyer Peter Giuliano for his opinion on why Ethiopian coffees were so resoundingly honored:

The jasmine-citrus-honey flavor of coffees from the Sidama region near the town of Yirgacheffe- where all the Ethiopian Good Food Awards winners were from- is unique in all of coffee. This mouthwatering flavor- instantly identifiable to any student of coffee- is probably the most cherished coffee flavor on the planet. Every coffee expert I have ever known grows wistful and romantic when they speak of Sidama and Yirgacheffe coffees.

It’s not at all surprising that the coffees of Southern Ethiopia would essentially sweep the Good Food Awards. The coffees of Ethiopia are monumental, and are the granddaddy of all the coffees of the world anyhow.

We also think it had something to do with the rules, whose wording may have unintentionally given advantage to countries with nationalized coffee programs, like those run in Ethiopia by the ECX, or semi-nationalized who-can-really-tell programs like those run in Colombia by the FNC.

Somehow amidst the crash and din of the downstairs after party, we had an opportunity to pour V60s for attendees of the post-gala eat-and-drink-a-thon. It was hard to juggle the brisket, the coleslaw, the aspic, and the booze jars flying past, so as to truly step back to to taste the coffee. Here’s a short list of things consumers kept asking at the GFA coffee booth:

Why are there so many Ethiopian coffees?
Where’s the decaf?
Do you have cream and sugar?
What’s the darkest roast?
How many grams of coffee do you use for a cup?
Where’s the bathroom?

In all, the GFA left us with lingering questions. Who is the Good Food Award ultimately for? Is it for the farmers? Certainly there were farmers in attendance: organic raspberry farmers from Oregon; fig farmers from North Carolina; apricot farmers from California. But nary an attendee from Colombia or Ethiopia. Is it instead for honoring the roasters? Are they more like the whiskey distillers, crafting alchemy from raw material they did not themselves grow, albeit with fewer cowboy hats?

Steve McCarthy of Clear Creek Distillery, whose remarkable eau de vie poire was honored in the GFA’s “Spirits” category, had some wise words to share with the assembled winners, journalists, and courtly hangers-on, and it’s a nice place to leave our 2011 GFA coverage:

“Americans are obsessed with building brands. But never forget that you aren’t building brands, you’re creating products. The brand will take care of itself.”

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Ric Rhinehart’s Debonair Productions Presents: “A Webinar To Remember”

Llewellyn Sinclair — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:02:21 +0000

Ric Rhinehart, kingpin of the SCAA braintrust, made an announcement on Coffeed earlier this week:

The team at the ECX is moving quickly to develop a solution for bringing specialty Ethiopian coffee to market that is a direct response to the issues raised by the specialty coffee community over the last twelve months. In an effort to reach the broadest possible audience and explore the latest developments from Ethiopia, the SCAA will host a Webinar on January 26, 2010 at 10:00 am Pacific. For more details, see here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=267153696068&ref=mf

The Ethiopia Commodities Exchange is attempting to accommodate Specialty coffee trading on its platform. Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture Coffee explains on Coffeed:

A commodity exchange was established in Ethiopia in 2008, mainly for grains. The idea was to promote price transparency and food stability for Ethiopian food crops. Here’s a little op-ed piece:
http://www.philanthropyaction.com/nc/ethiopian_exchange_looks_promising

and a news item:
http://www.ifpri.org/pressrel/2008/20080414.asp

Along the way, someone had the idea that coffee should be traded in this same commodities system. Proponents of this system say that it will standardize coffee quality,, and introduce 81 generic grades of Ethiopian coffee.

Here is how I am understanding it so far: regional milllers would tender their coffee to one of twenty or so regional warehouses. Coffee is recognized as one of 9 geographically based “types”, and its quality is graded from 1 to 9. Therefore you might have a Sidama A grade 2 or a Harrar B grade 5. Coffee would carry no other designation other than that. The warehouses package the coffee into standardized bags, where it is brought to Addis and traded there as a commodity. Therefore, you can buy however many bags of Sidama A grade 2 on a given day for a given price.

Here is the rub: independent millers like Abdullah Bagersh (owner of Idido mill) or the Ogsadeys (owners of Horse mills) who buy coffee from farmers, mill it, escort it through the auction system and export it under their own mark will no longer be able to do this. They will be required to sell the produce of their mills to the commodity system, where its provenance will be lost.

There appears to be an exception: that farmers may sell their own produce directly. This will allow large plantations and co-ops (who are indistinguishable under Ethiopian law from individual farmers) to export their own coffee. So this system would effectively commoditize the private-mill coffees, and the only farmers in Ethiopia who would have access to the specialty market would be co-ops and large farms. It would also limit access to the organic market to these same players. Remember, Idido and Horse are not co-ops, they are privately owned mills, as are Haicof, Ambessa, etc.

I have also heard that the commodity exchange may not apply to dry processed Eastern Ethiopian coffees.

Join the conversation on January 26, 2009. Free to SCAA members, $99.00 for non-members.