More than 1,000 years ago, a goatherd in Ethiopia south-western highlands plucked a few red berries from some young green trees growing there in the forest and tasted them. He liked the flavor and the feel-good effect that followed.
Today those self-same berries, dried, roasted and ground, have become the world second most popular non-alcoholic beverage after tea. And, as David Beatty discovers, in words and pictures, the Ethiopian province is where the first blossomed Kaffa that gave its name to coffee.
The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia, the original home of the coffee plant, coffee Arabica, which still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. While nobody is sure exactly how coffee was originally discovered as a beverage, it is believed that its cultivation and use began as early as the 9th century.
Among the many legends that have developed concerning the origin of coffee, one of the most popular accounts is that of Kaldi, an Ethiopian goatherd, who lived around AD 850. One day he observed his goats behaving in abnormally exuberant manner, skipping, rearing on their hind legs and bleating loudly. He noticed they were eating the bright red berries which grew on the green bushes nearby.
Kaldi tried a few himself and soon felt a novel sense of elation. He filled his pockets with the berries and ran home to announce his discovery to his wife. They are heaven-sent, she declared. You must take them to the Monks in the monastery.
However, Ethiopia has not benefited a lot from it as required because of that it exports unprocessed coffee to boost foreign currency via exporting roasted and processed coffee products.
But, recently, a diligent and exemplary Ethiopian diaspora is working something essential. Melange Coffee Roasting and Packing Factory founder and owner Solomon Kassa is the man adding value to Ethiopian coffee.
The Ethiopian Herald makes an exclusive interview with him about the organization he has established very recently business called Melange Coffee Roaster factory in Addis Ababa Ethiopia in exporting packed coffee products to outside and local market at international standard.
He has stayed abroad for about 34 years before opening this new business. He has inaugurated coffee roaster factory last week and started to pack the raw coffee products for the consumers in various volumes.
He brought back home international experiences he acquired in Holland and England. That enabled him to formulate such business idea and to decide return home country with his wife to establish such nation benefiting service.
He started with a small machine that grinds 80 to100 kilograms of raw coffee in an hour five years ago. This assisted him to achieve his goal of working by a large scale machine type which can roast about 750,000 kilograms of raw coffee per day.
The factory roasts coffee by using Nitrogen gas. It produces and packs in a volume of 250,500 gram and 1 kilo gram roasted coffee. And it uses after burner modern technology to control the air pollution and produces about 720 kg per hour.
Furthermore, he also notes that the company has planned to plant another large factory that aids this factory in 2021.
The raw coffee comes to his organization for further processing from other Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association. After processing and packing it, he gives back to the providers either to sell or supply the local or international market or business men.
He says, “I have done my part to contribute to my country development both through facilitating the provision of processed coffee and job opportunity creation. Our organization has employed about 40 workers at this time.”
The factory is 100 percent free from manual contacts. It roasts, processes, stores, grinds and packs. Every activity is computerized and is transported in tube channel since coffee is sensitive in its nature. This enables keeping and producing quality coffee products that gives an opportunity to be competitive on world market. Then the value added coffee will be sold on the international markets meeting global standard.
As well, the organization plans to export the roasted coffee to Europe and African countries. To this end, some Norway and South African companies have shown interest to buy the product.
He has also planned to be involved in community related services.
The company was started with the capital of about 3 million Ethiopian Birr and now has reached around 22 million Birr including factory machine.
Moreover, all the stalk holders should exert their responsibilities in standardizing coffee exports to utilize the untapped potential; he noted exemplifying: “Countries like Uganda and Kenya have worked on their coffee products but we have not done well still untapped potential”.
Ethiopian Diaspora have to come back home to utilize the investment opportunities and assist their nation development, he calls on them.
On the other hand, Addis Ababa Investment Commission, Manufacturing Sector Team Leader Selamawit Getachew told The Ethiopian Herald that the most available investment opportunities in the city are services, manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
The commission also calls on the diaspora community who are interested to invest in their home country in addition to 3,000 local investors investing in the country so far. They should use the investment motivation package that includes tax exemption with priority for infrastructures such as road, transportation, water and electricity. The capital goods from abroad, vehicles and office materials are among those tax exemptions.
The Ethiopian Herald August 23/2019
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
