Ethiopia
The birthplace of Arabica, where coffee still grows wild in the forest.
- Region
- East Africa
- Regions
- Yirgacheffe, Sidama, Guji, Harrar, Limu, Jimma
- Altitude
- 1,500–2,300 m
- Harvest
- Oct–Jan
- Species
- Arabica
- Processing
- Washed and natural
- Production 2024
- 575,696 tonnes
- World rank
- #5
Varieties grown here
About
Legend credits a goatherd named Kaldi with noticing his goats dancing after eating coffee cherries. Whatever the truth, Ethiopia is where Arabica evolved, and around 15 million people depend on coffee there.
Coffee ceremonies, with green beans roasted in a pan and brewed in a clay jebena, are central to social life. Washed Yirgacheffes are floral and lemony; sun-dried naturals from Guji and Sidama burst with berry.
From Wikipedia
Coffee production in Ethiopia has a long history and remains an important part of the country’s agricultural and economic landscape. Ethiopia is within the native range of Coffea arabica, which occurs naturally in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, South Sudan and northern Kenya. Coffee is now cultivated in many parts of the world, but Ethiopia remains a major producer and exporter of Arabica coffee. Recent estimates indicate that Ethiopia is expected to produce approximately 12.1 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee in the 2026/27 marketing year, following an estimated production of 11.6 million bags in 2025/26. Coffee is also one of Ethiopia’s most important agricultural export commodities and important to the economy of Ethiopia. In the 2024/25 marketing year, the country exported approximately 7.43 million bags of coffee, generating around US$2.89 billion in export revenue. The sector supports millions of livelihoods across the country, with approximately 5.9 million farmers engaged directly in coffee production.
Text from the Wikipedia article Coffee production in Ethiopia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0.