GERA

The Gera farm is located some 40 kilometres southwest of Jimma, in the district of the same name. The farm was set up by Mohamed Ali’s father over 70 years ago. Mustafa Mohamed Ali’s family obtained the land concession in 1946, following the war against the Italians and at a time when the Emperor Haile Selassie government was looking to develop its agricultural land. They decided to plant coffee there, and his father chose plants in the neighbouring forest of Choché which he transplanted onto the newly acquired plots. This forest is now a protected nature reserve, and the fact that the Gera farm possesses coffee trees from this area is one of the things that make it unique.
Mustafa Mohamed Ali took over management of the farm more than 30 years ago, and he is working hard to continue the project begun by his father,carefully cultivating its 25 hectares and the same coffee treessourced from the wild forest. He maintains the forest of endemic species that surround his coffee trees. It is a natural forest coffee that also benefits from the unique local farming practices, which include manual picking.
Our teams are helping Mohamed Ali to constantly improve the quality of his coffee. Marjorie, our agronomist, journeyed to Gera two years in a row to talk with the farmers about their harvesting, drying (for example by improving bed ventilation) and storage techniques. Shambé, who works at our Addis Ababa office, is in regular contact with them and visits Gera several times a year. He and Jacques also give Mohamed Ali advice on coffee processing in Addis Ababa.

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Forest coffee

Preparation

Natural, dried on African beds