Testi Ayla Washing Station was founded in 2010 and became part of the Testi group in 2016. It now serves about 375 smallholder farmers in the village of Bombe in Sidama, near the Bombe Mountain. Producers here own an average of 2.5 hectares and grow varieties such as Mikicho and Setami, which are local coffees.
Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.
The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our import partners and their connections with mills and washing stations.
Typically farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilise fertilisers or pesticides in the production of coffee.
Natural coffees are typically delivered the day they are harvested, and are first sorted for ripeness and quality before being rinsed clean of dirt. Then they are spread on raised drying beds or tables, where they will be rotated constantly throughout the course of drying. Drying can take an average of 8–25 days, depending on the weather.
SIDAMA
The Sidama region is known for producing the most coffee at the highest grades in Ethiopia, and the geography explains why this is. This region spreads across fertile highlands, where half of the land is cultivated. The surrounding rivers and lakes along with the very high elevation results in cool weather and fertile soil. These factors, in combination with over 100 inches of rainfall per year, cause the coffee to ripen slower than in any other region in Ethiopia. There are over 50 cooperatives and 200 washing stations throughout Sidama.
