Cultivated on the high plateaus of western Ethiopia, they adapt perfectly to the altitude's pressure. Starting in October, 43 manual cherry pickers, predominantly women, traverse the shade-grown coffee plants, selecting only the ripest coffee cherries. The coffee cherries are washed, cleanly fermented, and dried on raised beds at the Seriti processing station. The station operates according to organic practices and offers the flexibility for local women to generate a vital seasonal income.
Mustafa Mohamed Ali inherited the land that his father, a respected sheikh who studied at the University of Alexandria, first acquired in the Ethiopian year 1987. He paid taxes for three years without any sales before finally exporting his first container of coffee to BELCO in 2009, thereby transforming legal reform into a living testament.
