paradise on donkey back

“In terms of development, there is not much going on here," says Abiy about Sheka. "Farmers in this region have almost no opportunities for economic development, and the coffee they harvested mostly came from old trees and was cheaply sold. This region is quite different from Limmu Kossa."

Located about 370 kilometres from Jimma, in the southeast, Sheka is also one of the richest and most diverse regions we've come across. even protected as a biosphere by the UN. This reserve includes forests, bamboo thickets, wetlands, agricultural land, rural settlements, and towns. It covers a unique biogeographic unit extending from cold and very wet highlands to hot lowland areas.

Farmers who work in this area are highly committed to the sustainable use of the forests. Still, they often need more income to avoid logging and unsustainable forest exploitation. To Gidhe, growing coffee seemed like a perfect solution, and so, as with his other projects, he embarked on this adventure. The region's rich soil is the only solace for its inaccessibility - coffee can only be transported out of the farm by slow but reliable donkeys and mules. Added to this, the processing can become compromised because of the constant rain (it rains 9 months a year!). The coffee is staggernly rich in florals and fruits though, and we are so proud to support this ambitious ecological masterpiece of a project.

CULTIVARS

Heirloom varieties

elevation

1680 -1,950 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

Sheka is a coffee project developed within the Sheka Forest Biosphere Reserve in the region of Sheka. Grown in absolute harmony with nature, coffee cherries are harvested by farmers with few viable economic opportunities. The transportation of the cherries is extremely labour-intensive, since the roads tend to get extremely muddy during the rainy season. Roads are cleared to facilitate transportation. Additionally, the drying is extremely complicated because it rains nine months of the year.

PROCESSING

Cherries are hand-picked by seasonal pickers on the estate. On delivery, all cherries are pre-screened by controllers, after which lots are separated into the washed lots (early and midseason) and naturals (late season).

Fully washed: hand-picked, pre-sorted, floated, pulped, wet fermented for 12 hours, soaked and washed, dried on raised beds, and dry-milled all under the supervision of the farm owner, Giday.

Natural: fully ripe cherries are spread evenly on raised beds and turned every hour to prevent molding, especially in the first few days. Sun-dried for at least 12 days.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Sheka washed grade 1 - 2024 landed cupping

Sheka Taye Komo grade 4 - 2024 landed cupping

The price you pay for Sheka p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.
This includes the cost of farming, harvesting until it’s export quality. Other farm gates for coffee from this estate are as follows :
Limmu Kossa - Sheka Taye Komo community lot - natural grade 4 : €3,36
Sheka estate wears many ‘hats’ throughout the export process. As employers, they take care of their workers by giving them food, accommodation, taking care of their medical expenses, providing them with transport. As an estate, they have to invest in farm maintenance. Finally they are also accountable for transporting the coffees from farms to Addis and exporting them to the Netherlands.

Limmu Kossa - Sheka Taye Komo community lot - natural grade 4 : €1,44
International shipping from Djibouti to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.
Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.
A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project. Read more about the regenerative projects done by Silivo here (Link coming soon).
This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Sheka. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page.