Description
From our import partner:
“Zelelu Ararso, at 60 years of age, is a returning participant farmer and an important figure in the Single Farmer Lots Program. This year we’re thrilled to have his coffee, washed, fermented, and dried by the Addis Ketema cooperative, of which Zelelu is a member. Addis Ketema, and Mekonisa’s home, are found in the Wenago district of the coveted Gedeo Zone– the narrow section of plateau dense with savvy farmers whose coffee is known as “Yirgacheffe”. Wenago is a small district that sits between Dilla, the mighty university city and coffee transit hub at the northern tip of Gedeo, and Yirga Chefe, in the heart of the zone, whose diminutive stature holds back none of its legendary global presence.
Zelelu is an accomplished individual, even by the standards of Gedeo, whose dense farming and processing landscape has a reputation for competitive farmers. He has earned model farming awards at local and state levels for working with the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU) to pioneer single farmer exports; the efforts of which helped like-minded farmers throughout Yirgacheffe’s union achieve direct sale and see their coffees priced and roasted with just about unprecedented transparency. In addition, Zelelu educates his children to a college level and will soon be processing his own harvests. Much respect.”