Novo Coffee

Kafa and Cats

Three years and some days ago, I recorded this story told to me by a friend in Kafa.

Ydenek Kabeda raised his rifle. His fifty-year-old eyes glistened a reflection of the wild coffee trees that surrounded his small house in Kafa forest. From the cover of their mossy trunks, he took aim at the raggedy king of forest felines, an Ethiopian lion.

“They are very smart. They don’t like guns, and they don’t forget,” says Tadele Abrha, Managing Director of Green Coffee Agro-Industry, a leading exporter of coffee from Kafa forest. “I have no fear of lions. I don’t point guns at them.”

The lion Mr. Kabeda shot that day didn’t die, but it remembered. A few days later, many lions came to feast on one of the shooter’s cows. They would later return to devour one of his horses. Mr. Kabeda shot one of the cubs and hung the hide on his wall.

For six years, the battle between man and big cats roared on. In the end, Mr. Kabeda was the final casualty. Having been forced to move his home some miles away, the lions still found him. Crouched down ready to shoot outside of his new house, he would die committing the same misdeed that started the conflict. As he aimed at one, he was pounced on by another. The lions made a small meal of Ydenek Kabeda, leaving only his hands and feet as evidence of their breakfast.

It could be our deep-rooted fear of wildness that causes us to mow nature down.  Fortunately, in the Kaficho zone of western Ethiopia, coffee’s birthplace, there are remaining tracts of forest diverse enough to remind of Amazonia, and the world’s second most widely traded commodity grows naturally and in abundance in the forest understory.

From Guji to Amaro, I am reminded that Ethiopia (and its coffees) is like a conglomorate of many countries

Travelling south and west from Sidama towards Amaro, one passes through the open plains that the Guji call home. Pastoralists, the Guji build temporary homes until they are ready to strike a match to the rickety structures and move themselves and their cows towards greener pastures. Puffs of smoke dot the landscape where the Guji burn swaths of vegetation to release nutrients in the soil. Soon after, fresh young green shoots poke through the burned grasses. For the Guji cows, this means meal time.

In the Guji areas, every man carries a gun, used primarily as a stick to herd his stock, but bullets are ready to load in case any conflict with the neighboring Amaro should arise.

The Amaro, by contrast, are sedentary agriculturalists, subsistence farmers and home builders whose homes extend into the high Amaro Mountains but also reach the plains, close to the Guji. The land-burning habits of the Guji are not appreciated by the Amaro, and conflict has flared up recently between the two groups, resulting in approximately 70 deaths around the border of the two territories.

Crossing from Guji to Amaro, one might as well be passing into another country, at war with its neighbor, with its own languages and customs, its own homes and life strategies. There are nearly 80 different ethnic groups in this country.

Yet, somehow, this is all called Ethiopia. And the coffee, even more diverse, is all termed Ethiopian.

How arbitrary are our boundaries and designations?

Thoughts on Fair Trade and special coffee opportunity

All certifications seem to be responses to historical abuses of people and environment that have their base in coffee as commodity. Fortunately, most people who visit forums like this seem to have a different angle on coffee and employ their own recipes for fairness and environmental responsibility.

Most of our companies are experiencing coffee discovery that would seem to be way beyond the need to defensively certify anything (at least not to eachother). We all seem happy to pay significantly more than what Fair Trade pays, and I think we do this because we can.

We can pay more because a market for high-priced coffee is opening up for us at home. This is really good news for all of us as businesspeople from western cities all the way to the farm.

I think that to fill the fuel tank for any project, every important player needs to see potential benefit. And I think all of us - the retailer, the roaster, the importer, the exporter, and all of the other savvy entrepreneurs from farm to taza - we need to lose our shame about the great opportunity and reward available for us as the world wakes up to unique and special coffee.

We all ask for transparency at origin, but who of us is making our own books publicly available? How much are our baristas paid, our salespeople, our managers, our delivery drivers? Do we use biofuel to deliver our coffee? What was the bar tab at the Addis Hilton last night?

If there were 100 people in the world today who would pay $1000 for an other-worldly coffee experience in a rare cup, that would be $100,000 in revenues in a fictitious (but not unimaginable) room of privileged consumers. How much should the farmer get for the few kg required for this experience? If the farmer owns the one tree in the world that can command $1000/cup, then maybe the merit is his. What about the person who sourced the cup and recognized the flavor? What about UPS who shipped the package?

Each of us might have a different formula for reward and fairness when it comes to abundant demand for rarified/special products. In the end, each individual buyer of a pound or a cup will decide if the cost is worth the aromatic reward. I'm excited by my own willingness to pay a lot more for coffee I really love, and I'm happy to see all in the industry benefit from the additional dollars in the chain.

I would really like to see retailers differentiate their menus and their price points per cup (some already do this, Novo and select customers included). This will create a willingness to pay roasters more for coffees that sell for more per cup. Then the roaster has more money to sustain his/her business and more to put into origin. Importer and exporter must net a healthy positive from this and some will put more energy into quality for the reward. Millers, farmers, and others also need it (dealing in special quality) to be the best option available. Independent graders and brand storytellers have a place in bringing more specific information about coffees all the way to the consumer. What about processing equipment manufacturers who build equipment to micro-process coffees, record data, etc.? There are many innovators I haven't imagined who will flock to opportunity.

In the end, a lot of people need to be paid to fuel this discovery, and all of us can be. But for everyone to be excited and funded on this journey, I really feel the price point for green and roasted coffee must change dramatically.

None of us should feel guilty about prosperity from these developments. Everyone's growing skills and enthusiasm are what propel us forward.

All of our formulas will be tested for good ethics by our customers and our peers, but, hopefully, we look collectively forward at what will likely be many decades of discovery and expansion of our niche.