Spread across the highlands of central and southern Ethiopia, the 23,000 member farmers of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) grow coffee in the deep forest shade of five-acre, family-owned plots. These are subsistence farmers who may keep a family goat, cow or some chickens, and harvest the nutritious root of the false banana tree to supplement what they earn from their cash crop, coffee. Most live in circular thatch houses without running water or electricity. This agrarian lifestyle has persisted in Africa's oldest nation for ages and coffee has always been a part of it.

Not only did humankind originate in this east African country, the coffee plant did too. Legend has it that ancient Ethiopian goat herder "Kaldi" discovered coffee by watching his goats dance with a rare display of physical energy after munching bright red berries off shrubs on the forest floor. He must have sampled the stimulating coffee berries himself, inadvertently launching humanity's love affair with the coffee drink.

Ethiopian coffee farmers enjoy some of the freshest cups of coffee on earth. Three times a day, a typical farm family will roast, grind, brew and then sip fresh coffee harvested off the family's own shade-grown coffee plot. The amount of energy Ethiopians put into roasting and brewing their coffee illustrates how culturally important the drink is. Peace Coffee had the honor to visit some of the farmers that grow our Ethiopian line. We went early in 2002, shortly after becoming one of the first U.S. roasters to import OCFCU Fair Trade coffee. Peace Coffee's T.J. Semanchin described a coffee ceremony in which he was invited to take part.

"While we sat getting acquainted with Haj Hussein and his family, his daughter Rahema was busy roasting fresh coffee beans in a pan over charcoal. She then ground the roasted beans with a wooden mortar and pestle and placed them in a jebena, Ethiopia's traditional clay-fired coffee pot. After steeping the grounds in hot water she filled a dozen or so cups, her slow pour preventing any grounds from coming out with the liquid. I sat drinking the best cup of coffee in my life, ten feet from where it was grown. My cup was filled three more times before we left."

OCFCU farmers are among hundreds of thousands of smallholder Ethiopian farmers growing coffee today and making that product Ethiopia's largest export. But despite Ethiopia's long-term intimate relationship with coffee, most farmers have suffered the same poor earning potential as small-scale coffee farmers worldwide, due to a glutted global coffee market and historically low prices.

OCFCU was established in 1999 in response to this failure of the global coffee market to adequately support Ethiopian farmers. Outside of OCFCU, Ethiopian coffee farmers are likely to earn a meager 25 cents per pound of green (unroasted) coffee from "collectors" who take the beans to the government-controlled auction in Addis Ababa where exporters bid on it. On the other hand, OCFCU, which is cooperatively owned and operated by its member farmers, returns the profit on exporting back to the farmers who end up with about 80 cents per pound of their green coffee. In addition, the union invests in social projects for the member communities. A top priority for most farmers is getting better access to safe water.

Wells are scarce in Ethiopia and only 12 percent of rural people have access to safe water, according to UNICEF. Women and children walk miles to fill jugs with river water to carry home. In fact, poor access to water may be what Ethiopia is best known for after prolonged drought and massive famine thrust Ethiopia into the global spotlight in the 1980s.

Peace Coffee is excited to be part of OCFCU's solution to their water supply problem through continued Fair Trade purchase of their coffee and by providing no interest loans so farmers can purchase materials and assistance to dig wells.

Back in that cold Minnesota February, when Peace Coffee was happily touring the warm grassy savannahs and forested plateaus of Ethiopia's Oromo region, we learned something deeply moving from the growers of our coffee. We were visiting to celebrate and seal our newly established relationship with our Fair Trade partners, a natural enough interaction between trading partners. But the growers told us that our visit was the first visit they'd ever received from any importers. The reason a personal connection with importers was finally possible for them is that OCFCU is Ethiopia's first and only entity to have been granted the right to bypass the mandatory coffee auction process which adds layers of middlemen between grower and importer.

As Peace Coffee staff traveled from farm to farm, we pledged our commitment to Fair Trade and to the farmers' efforts at improving the material condition of lives. In return, the farmers pledged their commitment to growing the best coffee and to preserving community cooperation within the union.

In an uncommon moment of human interaction between oversees trading partners, Semanchin co-signed Peace Coffee's trade contract with OCFCU's marketing director in person. When deals are brokered by middlemen, by contrast, products become faceless and people anonymous. Peace Coffee's face smiles.

Check out the April and May 2007 issue of Fair Grounds to read about our recent visit to OCFCU.