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The Ethiopian harvest is coming to an end, as farmers are finishing up with the cherry picking process. Overall, the weather was consistent throughout the entire country, allowing cherries to develop at a normal and steady pace.
Cherry prices are still high. Our boots on the ground noticed multiple suppliers refraining from pushing their cherries into washing stations, due to an overall feeling of uncertainty. This did not dramatically affect the harvest’s progress, as demand for cherries remained high, but it did result in market fluctuations and delays in deliveries
High prices also resulted in higher expectations from buyers. This motivated a significant amount of producers to experiment with special preps, more than our local representatives have seen before.
So far, we have cupped a lot of type samples, as we continuously search for the best quality throughout the regions we source from. These can give us an indication of how coffees are cupping from a particular region, exporter, or station, but do not exemplify actual lots we can buy.
We are now beginning to cup some stock-lot samples. These are physically sampled by our team in Addis, from coffees that have arrived into exporters’ warehouses. They represent specific lots that we can contract, and are much more reliable than type samples.
We have a lot of cupping to do in the upcoming weeks, so that we can provide you with further insight. From our team’s first impressions at origin, we are expecting to see high quality, density, as well as lower moisture levels in comparison to last year.
Even though it is still quite early in the season, shipments for washed coffees should start during the next couple of months, followed by naturals soon after.
Pre-shipment samples should be ready by March. Stay tuned for more!
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