In a bustling coffee processing plant filled with the aroma of top-notch Arabica coffee in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, a group of women were busy sorting out defective green coffee beans to ensure that only the finest-quality beans move on to the roasting and packaging stages.
One of these dedicated women can sort defects from up to 150 kg of raw coffee beans each day at the Hadero coffee processing plant. The sorted green coffee beans would then pass through the inspections, roasting, grinding, and packaging stages before they are ready for buyers on the shelves of supermarkets and coffee shops in Ethiopia and around the world.
Named after a small coffee-producing town in southern Ethiopia, Hadero is among the rapidly growing list of coffee processing businesses in Ethiopia that are specialized in coffee sector value addition, as part of a broader push to transform the country’s coffee industry.
“We are a homegrown company, and we aspire to increase Ethiopia’s earnings from the export of coffee through value addition and proper marketing,” said Mubarek Ahmed, the company’s director of business development.
Ethiopia stands as Africa’s largest producer of Arabica coffee, with coffee production serving as a linchpin of the country’s agriculture-led economy. There are about 5 million smallholder coffee growers in Ethiopia, and more than 25 million people in the country are involved in coffee production, processing, and sales for their livelihoods, according to official figures.
No Comment Found.