Musa Aba Lulesa - Bashasha Single Farm Natural Djimma

While Musa’s coffee was sold through the Ethiopian Coffee Exchange (ECX) he made less money. In an effort to empower himself and his family, he found that running as much of the business as possible himself was the best way to get the most income. Musa’s goals are still to produce the best coffees in the world as well as to maintain and add additional washing stations and drying beds to ensure the quality of his coffee.

Musa’s father owned a large farm of over 80 hectares. He gave 2 hectares to Musa and his brother so they could start their own business.

In 2006, Musa was selected to represent Ethiopian coffee farmers in a program from the Ethiopian government. Of 500 selected participants in 4 woredas across the country, Musa was the top winner. As a reward, he was sent to Uganda to participate in AFCA, received 2,000 birr in prize money and a hand pulper. With the prize money Musa purchased more land and expanded his farm to a size of 44 hectares. 

Shortly after winning the award, Musa’s name faded from the news and he struggled to find more market opportunities. The establishment of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange in 2008 meant that he was required to sell locally in Agaro at commercial prices.

Musa has been exporting his coffee directly through second window since 2016. His own success has undoubtably inspired many nearby producers to join Bashasha or pursue other means of direct export. Though he has never been a member of a cooperative, he is a well-known coffee producer in the region. As a trusted member of the community, Musa was chosen as the representative of the farmer in the Bashasha farmers’ group. Musa is in charge of communicating with us and making sure all the coffee is ready for pick up when the truck comes. 

With the proceeds from the coffee Musa sold to us from his 2018/2019 crop, he has started to renovate a part of his farm and plant new seedling that he grew in his own nursery. He has also started building new drying beds, shaded pre-drying beds and a larger warehouse. In 2020, he plans to invest in a Penagos 500.

Musa’s 43.8 hectares feature a number of coffee varieties, all of which he cares for carefully. Many of the methods he uses are organic by default, as agricultural inputs have historically been hard to access. **

In addition to coffee farming, Musa farms avocadoes and keeps honeybees for additional income.

Musa’s cherries are selectively handpicked. After harvest, he lays his cherry to sundry on his drying beds for 10 to 15 days. He stores dried cherry in his warehouse, which he is currently expanding.

Due to recent changes in regulation, even the little guys can directly export their coffee to foreign markets. With Ethiopia’s staggering levels of variety diversity, we believe that amazing new coffees are just waiting to be discovered. 

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established in 2008 as a way to help farmers receive higher prices, get paid more quickly and receive better payment for better quality. To accomplish these goals, the ECX was intentionally designed to semi-anonymize coffees so that those who graded and those who purchased the coffees, did so on the merit of the cup not the reputation of the name.  

In response to the demand for more traceable coffee, the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Development and Marketing Authority introduced a bill in 2017 that allowed Ethiopian coffee, including coffee sold through the ECX, to be marketed and sold with full traceability. 

The 2017 changes to the ECX regulations gave farmers a chance to apply for export licenses. With these export licenses, farmers can now process, market and export their coffee directly. This system places an emphasis on preserving traceability for each producer’s lots throughout the supply chain. It also means that farmers have more choice and more control over the price they receive. Finally, it provides incentives for farmers who are geared towards quality, benefitting all actors in the supply chain.  

These new laws are giving us a unique opportunity to increase our traceability all while supporting great coffee farmers. We’ve partnered with farmers in Bashasha, a small town in the Agaro Zone of Western Ethiopia, to bring you a selection of Naturals and Fully washed coffees that can be traced all the way to the farmers themselves.

Agaro is well known for producing some of the most well-known cooperative coffees of the past decade via the Duromina, Biftu Gudina, Yukro, and Hunda Oli cooperatives.  

The majority of coffees grown in Agaro are local landrace varieties (which are often also called Ethiopian heirloom). Other varieties grown in the region were developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC). JARC is an important research center for Ethiopia and has done a great deal of work on developing disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties that still demonstrate quality in the cup. 

Most farmers in the region farm on fewer than 5 hectares (many counting their coffee farms in terms of trees rather than area). Cultivation methods are traditional for the most part, with coffee being grown as part of an integrated ‘coffee garden,’ intercropped with other food crops.