Shoondhisa

Ethiopia is widely considered the birthplace of coffee. As early as the 10th century, Ethiopians ate the red cherries of wild coffee trees when they passed through the mountains. From these indigenous beginnings, the Arabica coffee plant has spread throughout the world.

Ethiopia is the number one coffee producer in Africa and sixth in the world, accounting for almost 70% of its export earnings and creating employment for approximately 15 million Ethiopians. There is a main annual harvest that takes place between November and February and more than half of Ethiopia’s coffee is produced on small plots of land around the coffee farmer’s home known as a ‘coffee garden’. Only 5% of Ethiopian coffee is produced on large estates and these are usually low-lying plantations in the west of the country. Ethiopia uses both washed and natural processing methods, with a wide variety of cultivars producing some of the most magnificent and unique coffees in the world.

The Guji Zone is located in the Oromia region of southern Ethiopia. Most of the residents are Oromo and speak the Oromo language, which is completely different from Ethiopia’s main language, Amharic. Like many of the country’s coffee-producing regions, the culture of the Guji Zone varies from woreda to woreda (district to district). The main source of fresh water in the area is the Ganale Dorya River, which also acts as the border line to the east with neighbouring Bale.

To the west, Guji is bordered by the Gedeb woreda of southern Gedeo zone in the neighbouring Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region, part of the Yirgacheffe coffee region.