Higher Grounds Trading Company
Roasting 100% Fair Trade and Organic Handcrafted Coffees
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Meet the Farmers: Ethiopia
The cradle of humanity and the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Ethiopia offers the coffee drinker quality organic coffees from the nation's diverse regions, soils, climates, and cultures.
Through our importing cooperative, Cooperative Coffees, Higher Grounds buys fair trade coffee directly from Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU). SCFCU is an skilled organization charged with the responsibility of processing support, marketing, and commercializing coffee for 45 cooperatives comprising of nearly 87,000 farmers. SCFCU works exclusively in the Sidama region, in southwest Ethiopia.
In Perspective
Ethiopia is renowned as the birthplace of coffee, with more than fifteen million Ethiopian households dependent on coffee for income. There are more than 1.2 million coffee farmers in the country, with 95 percent of the coffee produced by small-scale farmers. Ethiopians have cultivated coffee for more than 2,000 years with nearly 3,000 different coffee species.
A Quality Cup
Ethiopia produces some of the world's most unique, complex coffees. From Eastern Ethiopia's silky, blueberry-tinged Harrar coffee to the citrus-y, almost floral flavors of the beans grown in Southern Ethiopia's Sidamo region, Ethiopian coffees are unforgettable, and a favorite among coffee connoisseurs.
