Arabicas from the Garden of Eden—Coffea Aethiopica

29th April 2008

Few coffees have generated the buzz and excitement among the coffee cognoscenti as the Geisha. Grown in Panama, Geisha recently fetched an immense US$ 130 per pound in an internet auction for a select 10 half sized bags (300kg), an amazing increase from US$5 to $25 to $50 over the last 3 years. A couple of years ago when an American specialty roaster first tasted Geisha he remarked “I thought I met God”.

Delicate and mysterious, Geisha unveils new pleasures with every sip, having notes of blackberry and ripe mango, ginger, lime and milk chocolate. The cup character of Geisha is unique among all Central American coffees, not only Panamanian.

According to Geoff Watts, director and green coffee purchaser for Intelligentsia, the Geisha coffee beans have an “Ethiopian character: lemony floral, somewhere between lemongrass and sweet jasmine, and a little citrus; Geisha is incredibly aromatic, crazy, like there was light beaming out of it.”

Picture above right: Gesha coffee plant at Tepi plantation in Ethiopia
Photo: Jean Pierre Labouisse


Willem Boot, coffee grower in Panama with Panama Geisha plants
Photo: Graciano Cruz

By appearance and cup character, I believe Geisha has Ethiopian lineage. With floral aromatics, fresh citrus flowery brightness, light body, herbal and honey tinged cup, it is a very buoyant coffee, lively and not overbearing. The unusual long seed shape is much like long berry Harar, which is sundried and yet this is a fully wet-processed coffee in Panama, probably with genetic origins from the south west of Ethiopia, where the beans do not usually have the long bean shape.

My CIP IV project colleague, Jean Pierre Labouisse (JPL) of CIRAD, was at Jima research station as a landrace development breeder and he traced back the historical trail of Geisha in Panama to Gesha in Ethiopia; areas around: Ge(i)sha Mountain, 50-60 km. north of Maji, elevation 6,000 ft. (1,830m), 6º38′ N., 35º30′ E., Maji zone, Kaffa province. So Ethiopia (1931), Kenya (1931-32), Tanzania (1936), Costa Rica (1953), Panama (1965?) could be the chronology for the Geisha of Panama. When taken to Kenya the Geisha was also known as Abyssinian. The full information that JPL researched and provided can be seen on http://www.haciendaesmeralda.com/Thegeisha.htm. More material is in Kew Garden archives. For me the sweet floral and lightly spicy / herbal qualities in the cup are also reminiscent of Yirgacheffe.

Some comparisons with the Gesha at the Tepi state owned plantation show that both plants seem to have a similar growth structure with broad, thin and soft leaves, prolific evenly spaced branching and excellent fruit bunching. However, there are differences. The fruit is a little rounded in the Tepi Gesha. Distance between nodes on branches is shorter on the Tepi Gesha than Panama, which has greenish new leaf growth whereas the Tepi has bronze tipped fresh growth as well as greenish (see pictures). Both have upwardly angled growing branches but the Panama Geisha has more of an open Christmas-tree-like shape while the Tepi Gesha is more compact.


Green-tipped Geisha leaves, Panama
Photo: Graciano Cruz


Green-tipped Gesha Tepi leaves, Ethiopia
Photo: Jean Pierre Labouisse


Bronze-tipped Gesha Tepi leaves, Ethiopia
Photo: Jean Pierre Labouisse

Originally the collections were made for research but eventually, according to coffee farmer and cupper Graciano Cruz, the amazing cup quality was identified when Panamanian planters decided to separate and cup the different looking plants with long internodes that were tolerant to leaf fall during high prevailing winds, unlike other neighbouring bushes in the same area. Such coffees deserve high prices: limited in supply, quite unique, with an outstanding cup, a rare coffee cultivar “Geisha”. The real paradox is that there are many such varietals and growth regions in Ethiopia with amazing untapped potential.

The cup quality depends of course on so many different factors such as the climate, soil type, shade conditions, not just the genetic make up. The Tepi plantation received material in 1984 from Oeris research station in Portugal, which is renowned for work on Arabica coffee leaf rust resistance. The elevation at the Tepi plantation is low for Ethiopia at 1200m. The cup quality is quite basic. These plants are not resistant to coffee berry disease (CBD) which prevails at higher misty elevations in a few African countries. However, Ato Tadele Abrha, a dynamic large scale coffee investor and exporter[*1] has recently planted seedlings from Gesha, which appear to be CBD resistant, at a much higher elevation around 1800m in his Kaffa zone plantation near Bonga coffee forests. It will be interesting in 2-3 years’ time to compare the cup quality when these Gesha plants from near Maji (not Tepi) come into bearing fruit.

This interesting subject of interaction of the genetic make up with the various factors in the surrounding environment to result in the physical plant, the fruit and the final product in the cup leads us to discuss some of the potential strategies for the Ethiopian coffee industry. Some may think that Ethiopia is not yet ready to implement some of these ideas. Despite the challenges I have faced working here, Ethiopia is beginning to open up to new ideas albeit carefully. And the country needs assistance to build the physical and institutional infrastructure with the human capacity. This does not have to be only from the large donors such as the World Bank or the European Commission. Each industry participant, however small, can contribute in some form or another, perhaps more directly and efficiently.

Ethiopia is the world’s only origin of Arabica, the only coffee species that can be processed to produce the aromatic flavourful cups that act as a fuel for the mind. Most of us know its importance since Arabica constitutes about 60 percent of the world’s commercially traded coffee. Not so long ago this was more than 70 percent. More importantly, Ethiopia possesses 99.8 percent of the genetic diversity. This is even more significant because Arabica is 95 percent self pollinating and inbreeding as opposed to Robusta which is cross pollinating. Thus to achieve results in future breeding programmes, the coffee world needs the existing diversity in Ethiopia.

Although much eroded, there are still today abundant coffee forests (see map) which house the immense genetic diversity. The rest of the world’s Arabica is derived from about 4-5 gene bases some centuries ago from Ethiopia. Therefore, by default Ethiopia is the ideal candidate for a genomic strategy to benefit the country as well as the rest of the coffee producing and consuming worlds. This means pronouncing Ethiopia as the centre of world’s Arabica[*2] coffee research, linking up with other major research centres in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, India – just as in the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), Mexico is for maize and the Philippines for rice. The economic value of Coffea arabica genetic resources is estimated at US$0.5-1.5billion per annum (Hein & Gatzweiler 2005, Ecological Economics, Elsevier). With more realistic assumptions I guesstimate the value of a fully developed system at US$ 150m which is still considerable, when realised.

For instance, with so much at stake, in order to avert future risks, the largest producers such as Brazil and Colombia may want to test their current and future varieties in Ethiopia for susceptibility to CBD, which they do not have at present but may arise in the future. Comprehensive global research can be conducted against the common coffee leaf rust, which reduces world farmers’ yields in billions of dollars. However, more than that we need to develop methods by which Ethiopian and other countries research institutions can co-ordinate to identify varieties in such a manner that the plants are appropriate for the growing conditions of the different regions and countries, according to their processing systems and market requirements in terms of say quality favoured by consumers but also tolerating or resistant to the pests and diseases with optimum productivity within the eco-climates of the producing countries; thus benefiting both the farmers and the world’s coffee drinkers. Ethiopia must also benefit by way of an internationally agreed genomic strategy, monetarily or with exchange of rights to other genetic material such as livestock or crop material. Such a strategy may be prepared through the recently (April 2005) started International Coffee Genomics Network (ICGN) under the aegis of ASIC[*3].

Map of Ethiopia: main forest areas in dark green and forest areas with coffee in light green[*4]

Source: Universities of Bonn & Addis Ababa, Coffee Conservation Research Project in Ethiopia 2005

In order to achieve these concepts the natural gene pools in the coffee forests of Ethiopia need to be preserved. Conservation attempts have been thwarted by human and livestock population pressure, eroding the forest areas. Some people say that Ethiopia had about 30 percent forest (not only coffee but including coffee forests) coverage about 40 years ago and now it is less than 5 percent of the total land area. This erosion has been accelerated by government proclamations which give land use rights if an area has been occupied for more than 2-3 years. Fortunately some participatory forest management systems are successful in harmonising the livelihoods of original forest dwellers with migrant people, usually seeking land for farming and grazing or timber.

One concept I consider worth exploring is the restoration of the eroded forest areas using commercially viable forest coffee for the purpose of conservation as well as the creation and marketing of a unique product for Ethiopia. I have sounded out the conservationists, certifiers, exporters and growers as well as the regional government officers, all of whom have been positive towards the idea.

The unique product opportunity for Ethiopia to market Forest Arabica Coffee: Ethiopia is the only country in the world which can produce Arabica Forest Coffee or Forest Arabica. With the adoption of this idea Ethiopia can earn as much additional export revenue as she does currently from coffee exports and at the same time conserve much of the biodiversity. Wild coffee and Forest coffee is already much in demand in Germany and the Japanese and American markets are also catching up. The basic concept is to restore forests around all identified coffee forest areas, where the forest may have been reduced in the last decades, by creating nurseries prepared with fruit or seed from the core forests. The newly restored areas would be planted predominantly with coffee and 6-10 selected indigenous tree species from the forests to provide shade-tree seedlings also multiplied in nurseries near core forest areas.

Detailed map of Ethiopia: main forest areas in dark green and forest areas with coffee in light green[*5]

Source: Universities of Bonn & Addis Ababa, Coffee Conservation Research Project in Ethiopia 2005 with the names of forest areas of Amphilo, the peninsula of Zegey in the famous Lake Tana added. The two main coffee forest areas of Kaffa and Bale are shown.

The idea should be generated by the government with donors and promoted by private sector investors, domestic and foreign, to preserve the core areas with surrounding small holder outgrower farmers, to supplement supply of the forest coffee and in return receive technical, processing and marketing assistance. A marketing seal may be used in cooperation with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or Rainforest Alliance (RA). At my request on behalf of the coffee improvement CIP IV project 2 years ago, RA looked into the required parameters to certify “Forest Coffee”. They have certification methodology for forests and also for coffee but not for Forest Coffee or Coffee Forests. RA have this year installed their trained person in Ethiopia who informed us that they have just started the process of Forest Coffee certification for the Japanese (JICA) financed project for rehabilitation of Beleta-Gera forests just 60km south west of Jima on the road to Boginda (see map), one of the CIP IV project coffee forest conservation sites.

After the initial step of successful installation of sustainable participatory forest management with the communities and authorities, biosphere reserve areas can be created for eventual promotion as United Nations Heritage sites for the Kaffa and Balé zones.

The following pictures have been taken by the author in November 2004 inside the Boginda (also known as Boginda Yeba – see map) forest areas: A-C of young saplings of forest coffee and D of wild pepper vine. The photo E of forest cardamom and F of a mass of tall stringy forest coffee trees were shot in August 2006 at the edge of Yayu’s (see map) Geba-Dogi forest.


A. Young forest coffee (with cardamom, right corner)

B. Young forest coffee plant

C. Forest coffee susceptible to (bottom right) leaf rust

D. Wild pepper in same forest

E. Wild cardamom, edge of Yayu forest

F. Forest coffee, edge of Yayu forest

The certified forest coffee should be distinguished from Wild Coffee, of which there are only small quantities. At the 2006 SCAE meeting in Bern, Switzerland, after we made a joint presentation on forest and special Ethiopian coffees, we at CIP IV have also asked “Geo” the German geographical publication to consider coffee forest certification since they already add their logo to “Wildkaffee” or “Café Sauvage” from Kaffa, roasted and marketed by Original Foods in Switzerland. The Swiss Co-op supermarket chain sells forest “Bonga” as fine quality, medium and espresso roast levels. There is also the Wild Coffee Collection from the Bonga Red Mountain.

Scanned images of Wild Coffee Collection from Bonga Red Mountain – the packaging material shows maps of geographic indication and the Geo registered mark label

The above mentioned concept of forest coffee should be combined within a national structure to gainfully access carbon sequestration credits even from existing shade grown coffee. Industrial polluters can purchase these credits to balance their quotas. According to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), credits are assessed to be worth the same as forests – US$50 per hectare. With the current estimated coffee area in Ethiopia of 600,000 hectares (cultivated shade grown ‘garden’ coffee as well as semi-forest & forest coffees) or more, this equates to US$ 30million. Carrying the idea to other non-coffee forest areas will generate much more additional revenue.

With coffee eco-tourism, wild coffee agro-forestry may engender additional interest from specialist buyers and interested coffee fans. A few luxury local ‘tukuls’ (round huts constructed from local material) with showers and usual amenities, would serve well to attract visitors from abroad and within the country to interact with the forest communities and farmers, also raising some additional income. This can be combined with visits to coffee museums that will be established near Bonga and tasting sessions at some of the rural laboratories that are planned with Swiss funding through ITC, the International Trade Center, based in Geneva.

Apart from in-situ forest conservation there are also field gene banks at Choche (for south-western area collections near Jima on the road to Yayu) and Bedeso (for Harar coffee collections since the plants differ) both maintained by the Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation (IBC) as well as extensive country wide collections at Jima (JARC) research station and the 7 sub-stations. Both require detailed gene mapping and cataloguing to assess the value of the ex-situ gene bank collections in terms of their genetic diversity, especially the IBC’s, which were randomly collected.

In addition to this urgent conservation message to the coffee world, I also want to convey to the speciality and the artisan coffee connoisseurs that the potential in the inherent qualities of Ethiopian coffees have nowhere near been achieved. If 15 percent of today’s production can be called speciality then in my opinion and that of many exporters and buyers, with improvement and care in the growing and even more in the post harvest practices, it is possible to have 50-60 percent of the Ethiopian production with differentiated natural range of tastes to be in the speciality category; and some 10-15 percent in the top artisan definition. I cannot guess by when.

The main aim of the CIP IV project is to enhance the livelihoods of coffee farmers with improved incomes. More sustainable practices to produce qualities according to market requirements will lead to better prices and more profit. The project aims to create niche grower-to-buyer linkages for higher value marketing of differentiated and branded quality products, with identified geographical growth areas. Eventually there will be improved consumer recognition world wide of many more Ethiopian regional quality profiles.

Current practices in most growing areas are far away from the above aims except with some knowledgeable traders who recognise the possibilities and want to enhance or maintain their reputation. Yirgacheffe was differentiated from Sidamo about 40 years ago as exceptional due to the particular microclimate. Some Yirgacheffe may taste similar to Sidamo but no Sidamo can be Yirgacheffe. Even in Yirgacheffe there is some mixing of other qualities, thus degrading its and the nation’s reputation at times. Exported Sidamo coffee comes from various growing districts surrounding Sidama zone with finely distinctive taste profiles that can be further differentiated; even the bean shapes and sizes vary slightly. Some of this may be due to the genetic diversity. In addition, a buyer may say: ‘if only some Harar did not at times have that earthy overtone masking the distinct mocha flavour!’ Some sundried qualities from Arusi zone, just south east of Harar, which were mixed with other Harar coffees, are now being differentiated as superior. Arusi has tastes of Harar combined with the southern and western origins.

Similarly, the export traded grade Djimma-5 is a sun dried base quality from the lower natural sundried grades of many different Ethiopian growing areas. It forms the largest percentage of the total production including local consumption. And yet the better sundried grades from all these origins fetch good prices. Much of the Djimma-5 can be improved and differentiated for better prices.

In Japan’s July 2007 specialty meeting, buyers were asking for top quality naturals, which have fetched in Japan and elsewhere $2 or more per pound weight fob, equal to or more than some of the top washed Ethiopian qualities. But the natural sundried coffees are in short supply this year because of prolonged rains during the last harvest season. This seems likely to recur this year. Even otherwise, the malpractices of picking green fruit and post harvest shortcuts in drying only lead to losses for the farmer in weight and quality, also for the country’s reputation, but none to the middle traders who just make a margin in the middle for the commodity that can in fact be a valuable special coffee. Ethiopia’s reputation has of course also been tarnished by some exporters defaulting on contracts during periods of rising prices in the last few years. This needs to change.

All the same, in writing this article, my appeal is to speciality and other buyers to identify special growing areas of interest to them and to pass their technical knowledge of market requirements, processing technology to achieve those qualities; and if possible some monetary resources as investment through their usual channels of exporters, to link with farmers in the buyers’ particular identified areas and help them produce the better quality coffee required at the farm level, where quality is made; but most importantly to ensure reward of quality to the farmers with a price to enable them to do it again and again. This is already happening to a limited extent but the process needs to gain more support and be accelerated.


Map showing the main coffee growing areas in Ethiopia (Source: Coffee & Tea Authority); some areas with potential or differentiation possibilities are added in orange.

In the map above, with the well known coffee growing names and areas, I have added just a few of the growing areas which are beginning to be recognised as special on their own. There are others, such as Kembata, Wollyite, the superior Bunsa-Chiri, which can also be differentiated from the umbrella Sidamo for further 8-10 subdivisions, such is the diversity. Borena and Amaro coffees that went into Sidamo or Yirgacheffe are now beginning to be marketed separately. There is even a ‘new’ growing area in Guji zone, near Shekiso, partly with existing forest coffee. This is near the gold mining areas where other activities were not permitted until recently.

In addition there are new varieties released by JARC research centre which have wonderful taste profiles that may also vary slightly according to the growing conditions in the areas of production. Most of them though have been bred according to their landrace type, thus more suitable for the eco-climates to which they have been released and with taste profiles true to type for those areas. But such similar eco-climates may also exist in other producing countries. The good liquoring varieties may also be grown and marketed individually if buyers approve of the cup qualities.

Please do take note of my above mentioned appeals for Arabica conservation and direct linkages to Ethiopian farmers to achieve something tangible for the future generations and yourselves as well, especially if you are already buying Ethiopian coffees. After the current Coffee Quality Institute training programme, adoption of the ‘Q’ grader certification systems to identify quality profiles at origin for electronic accessibility by buyers would facilitate the commercialisation and marketing of the special, forest, wild and artisan style production.

I leave you with a wonderful picture I have taken of the ages-old (perhaps more than 1000 years) traditional coffee ceremony from this land with strong religious following, with a culture of polite greeting on any encounter before conversation or business; a land with amazing quality of sun light and landscapes; with diversity of people, coffee and languages (about 80), very poor and yet still proud of their nation.


A magnificent coffee ceremony with a lady in traditional dress, Arabica bush behind, near a coffee pulping & washing station, Agaro Nov 2004, not far from Jima
Photo: Surendra Kotecha

Possible future objectives and steps:
Goals: identify and select superior tasting coffees, beginning with Geisha coffee types that are suitable for the Ethiopian conditions with similar cup quality as the Panama Geisha.

1. Develop agreement between research centers Jimma / Tepi and SCAP (Specialty Coffee Association of Panama).
   
2. Collect seeds and leaf samples in the Gesha forest. Identify each location of collection with GPS coordinates.
   
3. Transport leaves to CIRAD by DHL courier for genetic analysis.
   
4. Supply Panama Geisha leaves to CIRAD for genetic analysis.
   
5. Identify CBD resistant Gesha types – partly already done
   
6. Transport seeds to Tepi / Haru / Gera Research sub-centres and multiply into seedlings
   
7. Supply Panama Geisha seeds to Ethiopian research sub-centres and create seedlings
   
8. Develop film footage of explorations

Requirements:

1. Agreement Jimma/Tepi Research Centre
   
2. Agreement with SCAP
   
3. Collaboration with CIRAD regarding genetic analysis;
   
4. Identify protocols for seed/leaf collection.
   
5. Create critical timeline for leaf transportation
   
6. Budget for exploration and follow up and possibilities for funding
   
7. Permits of local authorities. Which wereda has jurisdiction over Gesha?

Use the above as an example of the way forward: to develop other high quality varieties in Ethiopia with the lessons learnt, and for the genomic strategy (gene mapping of Ethiopian coffees; satellite mapping of areas with coffee qualities, the geo-eco-climates, soil types, altitudes, and if there is any geographic grouping of gene pool types, then mapping of these groups to draw out any correlations with quality, elevation, climate, soil type, rainfall, and number of dry months).—Surendra Kotecha

The author

Surendra Kotecha is an independent consultant, Chief Adviser, June 2004 – December 2007 on behalf of BDPA-CIRAD consortium for the European Commission funded Coffee Improvement Programme phase IV (CIP IV) for the Government of Ethiopia at the Coffee & Tea Authority (CTA), later at the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (MoARD) after the CTA was dissolved. Any opinions and comments are entirely those of the author. SKSurendra@aol.com & Coffeask@hotmail.com

Footnotes

1. Green Coffee Exports plc planted 1150 hectares of other varieties 4-5 years ago. Washed Kaffa forest organic Utz Kapeh and Rainforest certified beans fetch more than $2 per lb in the Japanese market.

2. Since Robusta originates in 3-4 African countries, one of them can be designated for Robusta, but the centre of research can also be in Ethiopia, co-coordinating with the other countries.

3. ASIC – Association Scientifique Internationale du Café – International Scientific Association of Coffee, based in Paris, holds regular scientific meetings at different venues world wide.

4. This map is simulated from satellite pictures which can also generate the light green coffee ‘forest’ areas where the cultivated coffee is densely populated with reasonably good shade cover, in addition to the real forest coffee areas. Harenna (pronounced Hirrena) is the Bale Mountain area with natural forests of coffee, north east of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffee growing zones of Sidama and Gedeo.

5. The same applies as in footnote 4 – This map is simulated from satellite pictures which can also generate the light green coffee ‘forest’ areas where the cultivated coffee is densely populated with reasonably good shade cover, in addition to the real forest coffee areas.